May 19, 2015

CNES pays tribute to Antonio Fabrizi

After the funeral of Antonio Fabrizi, ESA’s Director of Launchers from 2003 until recent months, CNES pays fulsome tribute to the man and to everything he achieved for European space.

Antonio Fabrizi, who has passed away at the age of 67, was appointed ESA’s Director of Launchers in 2003. He played a pivotal role in the successful development of the Vega launcher, was closely involved in taking the Soyuz launcher to the Guiana Space Centre and was of course a prime mover behind the development and sustained reliability of Ariane 5.

On behalf of everyone at CNES, the agency’s President Jean-Yves Le Gall’s thoughts go to Antonio Fabrizi’s family and friends and to his colleagues at ESA. He said: “CNES is very sad to learn Antonio Fabrizi’s death. Throughout his career, he was a credit to Italian and European space, and we all owe him a great deal. Over all these years, our teams came to appreciate his outstanding professional and human qualities. I myself had known Antonio for more than 20 years and I know just how much we owe him. I would like to express my sincere condolences to his family, his friends and all his colleagues.”

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Contacts
Pascale Bresson    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39    pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Alain Delrieu    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 74 04    alain.delrieu@cnes.fr
Julien Watelet    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37    julien.watelet@cnes.fr

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