euesa1-1, Exercise 1: Why a space agency is European history

Model answer:

No single European country could afford to compete with the United States and the Soviet Union in space after the Second World War, so European countries pooled money and expertise, and the European Space Agency is one of the clearest examples of them cooperating on something hard. It is also a record of their disagreements about who pays, who gets the contracts and how closely to work with other powers. Its work reaches ordinary life through weather forecasts, navigation and Earth observation, which makes it relevant to everyday history and not only to science.

Any answer using two of these points is acceptable.