Originally Posted by
A_Van
Both are correct. I have been working with ESA (and ESTEC in particular) since early 90's on joint international projects and visited ESTEC every 2-3 months sometimes. ESTEC is indeed a nice place where many nationalities work in a friendly atmosphere. To a large extent this is because The Netherlands, as a host country, is very comfortable for foreigners.
I recall only one funny episode: going through a long corridor I noticed a hand-written plate on one office saying "only fans of Celtic work here" (I assume it was about football). I asked my ESTEC friend whether it was a joke, and he answered: "50/50, really tough guys inside and you'd better not discuss sport issues with them" :-)
I recall a couple of the local Dutch hoteliers were less than friendly to any visiting German staff. I believe their gripe was about their ongoing dominance in football and something about some war or other. Of course we Brits never even thought about that stuff, let alone raise it in conversation
As for UK astronauts, ESA works according to a so-called "geographic return" principle.
Ah yes, Juste Retour. Many a happy debate about that too. Again I recall the UK did quite well out of that over the years.