July 8, 2013

CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall meets NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Monday 8 July in Washington

CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall met Charles Bolden, Administrator of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), on Monday 8 July in Washington. This meeting reflects the excellent relations in space enjoyed by France and the United States and gave the two agency heads the chance to review current and future cooperation projects.

Collaboration between France and the United States in space is one of the most longstanding and emblematic examples of science and technology cooperation. In 50 years, the two nations have forged close ties on numerous fruitful joint projects. France has accomplished its most spectacular joint space missions in partnership with the United States.

Today, French-US cooperation is governed by the intergovernmental agreement signed in 2007 and exists at institutional, political, commercial and industrial levels. Mr Le Gall and Mr Bolden discussed milestones that are set to mark the years ahead, covering a broad spectrum of topics including Universe sciences, robotic exploration of Mars—a standard bearer for French-US cooperation—Earth sciences and launch vehicles. On the exploration front, Mr Le Gall saluted the remarkable successes achieved by the United States and stressed the desire of CNES and its partner research laboratories to continue working together in this area. Lastly, just days after President Obama’s commitment on global warming, Mr Le Gall and Mr Bolden promised each other to pursue the historic partnership in Earth observation.

After their meeting, Jean-Yves Le Gall said: “I am particularly pleased with the talks we had with Charles Bolden today. They show the excellent relationship between our two nations. The United States is clearly France’s first and most longstanding partner in space. Our relationship is a foundation for continued success and trust in the years ahead, as we face the new scientific and technological challenges that we are eager to meet together.


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