CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall meets David Parker, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency (UKSA)

CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall was in Harwell (Oxfordshire) this Friday 22
November to meet David Parker, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency (UKSA).

The United Kingdom’s space policy gives priority to commercial applications for
telecommunications and Earth observation. UKSA pursues its missions chiefly through European Space Agency (ESA) programmes, to which it devotes 85% of its budget.
Cooperation between France and the UK in space is concentrating chiefly on the security of the Galileo programme, Europe’s satellite navigation system. This will be accomplished by the Galileo Security Monitoring Centres (GSMC) located in Swanwick, near Southampton, and Saint-Germainen- Laye, outside Paris. Both centres will be operational by the end of this year.
Since 2011, CNES and UKSA have been meeting on a regular basis to bring a new dimension to French-UK space cooperation. Talks this year have identified areas for cooperation in the short term, focusing on Earth-observation missions (SWOT and IASI-NG) and a joint research and technology programme.
Discussions have also addressed the main items on the agenda for the next ESA Ministerial Conference to be held in Luxembourg end 2014: launchers and Ariane 6 in particular, the International Space Station and ESA-European Union relations.
After this latest meeting, Jean-Yves Le Gall stated: “Our talks with David Parker were very constructive. We can now look forward to finalizing a framework agreement that will inject fresh impetus into French-UK cooperation in space and we are already accomplishing great things together on the Galileo programme.”
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
www.cnes.fr/presse

CP090-2013 - Rencontre UKSA_va.pdf (pdf - 110.33 KB)