May 21, 2013

CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall meets JAXA President Naoki Okumura Monday 20 May in Tokyo

CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall met Naoki Okumura, President of JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, on Monday 20 May in Tokyo. Testimony to France and Japan’s excellent relations in space, this meeting offered the opportunity to review a range of collaborative efforts currently underway.

The first space cooperation agreements between France and Japan dating back to the 1980s gave rise to many joint projects, particularly in Earth observation and commercial satellite launches. Japan is also a key partner of the European Space Agency (ESA) through its involvement in the International Space Station (ISS) and the BepiColombo mission to explore Mercury.

Today, cooperation between CNES and JAXA is being sustained by numerous contacts in research and technology and prospective planning with respect to launch vehicles, Earth-observation and telecommunications satellites, space components and space debris mitigation. These collaborative efforts are governed by a framework agreement renewed in 2010.

Mr Le Gall and Mr Okumura reviewed all of these topics and discussed major milestones ahead. In particular, CNES and JAXA experts meet regularly within working groups and present their results every year. The latest meeting took place in June 2012 in France and the next gathering is scheduled in Tokyo this autumn.

After the meeting, Jean-Yves Le Gall said: “I am particularly satisfied with our talks with Mr Okumura. Japan has been a key partner of France in space for several decades. I am very eager to build on the success of our joint research and technology projects, be they in launch vehicles, satellites or components.”

CNES press contacts:
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
Press office – Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 76 88 cnes-presse@cnes.fr


www.cnes.fr/presse