CNES hosts officials from EIAST (Dubai) at the Toulouse Space Centre (CST)
At the invitation of CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall, a delegation of top officials from the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) visited the Toulouse Space Centre (CST), one of CNES’s four centres of excellence, on Monday 24 March. Led by Yousuf Hamad Al Shaibani, Director General of EIAST, the delegation was welcomed by CST Director Marc Pircher, who gave them a tour of the field centre’s flagship facilities: the ATV Control Centre (ATV-CC), the French Instruments Mars Operations Centre (FIMOC) and the Pléiades satellite imagery acquisition centre.
EIAST is a technical centre established by the Dubai Government in 2006 to inspire scientific innovation and technological advancement, and to advance sustainable development in the United Arab Emirates and Gulf nations through a programme focused chiefly on satellite Earth observation, navigation and telecommunications.
EIAST develops satellite-based Earth-observation applications to meet its national and federal development and civil protection needs in management of natural resources, the environment, agriculture and transportation, and in forecasting, monitoring and management of natural disasters.
The visit gave EIAST’s officials the opportunity to learn more about CNES’s missions, especially in space exploration. Possible avenues for future cooperation were also discussed, involving in particular training for EIAST engineers and knowledge and technology transfer.
After the visit, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall stated: “It was a great pleasure for CNES to welcome the EIAST delegation to the CST. Our discussions clearly underscored the commitment of the Emirate of Dubai, and more broadly the United Arab Emirates, to step up their involvement in space significantly. The excellent relationship of trust we have established opens up opportunities for CNES and EIAST to work together in the future, for example in satellite Earth observation, navigation and telecommunications.”
CNES press contacts
Alain Delrieu Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 74 04 alain.delrieu@cnes.fr
Pascale Bresson Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39 pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Julien Watelet Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37 julien.watelet@cnes.fr
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