In Chapter 6 we recounted the steps which led to the establishment of ESRO as an organization for the support of European space scientists by the cooperative provision of most, but not all, of the technological facilities, project management services and contractual services needed in the 1960s. In so far as the vertical sounding rocket and scientific satellite programmes were successful, bearing comparison with any contemporary similar activities elsewhere, ESRO was very successful. But on a broader basis, there was by 1968 much dissatisfaction both among the space scientists making use of ESRO facilities, and amongst the member States providing the funds. Many scientists were critical of what they believed to be poor value for money, although these criticisms were not always easy to substantiate because of uncertain subsidies supporting alternative ways of proceeding. Governments tended to look critically at the build-up by ESRO of expensive technical and engineering facilities which clearly could be of great value to co-operative European programmes in applied space technology, whereas their restriction to the ESRO programmes of space science alone could, it was believed, lead to under-utilization and expensive duplication. In the background the faltering progress of ELDO, the desire of many Europeans to see a comprehensive space capability in Europe, including European satellite launching rockets, and the ever-present industrial and commercial interests in exploiting a new and potentially powerful technology, all contributed to a very confused scene in the late 1960s.