CNES and Polish Space Agency sign formal memorandum of understanding

During the official visit of Prime Minister Manuel Valls to Poland, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Marek Banaszkiewicz, President of the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), created last year, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) Thursday 12 March in Warsaw aimed at stepping up French-Polish space cooperation. The MoU was signed in the presence of Manuel Valls and his Polish counterpart Ewa Kopacz.

As France’s leading partner in Central Europe, Poland has developed ever closer ties formally established by the strategic partnership in 2008 and the subsequent cooperation programme between the two nations, renewed in 2013.

French-Polish space cooperation is currently focused on the TARANIS mission (Tool for the Analysis of RAdiation from lightNIng and Sprites) developed by CNES to detect and study transient luminous events (TLEs)—a phenomenon that is still poorly understood—occurring in the upper atmosphere at altitudes of 20 to 100 kilometres. TARANIS will be orbited this year by a Vega launcher.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed today in Warsaw is intended to establish formal space ties between France and Poland, which recently created its own national space agency and has growing ambitions in space since joining the European Space Agency (ESA) at the end of 2012. The MoU will pave the way for joint space initiatives to be pursued within a bilateral framework or through ESA and European Union programmes.

After the signing of the MoU, Jean-Yves Le Gall commented: “I am very pleased to have signed this MoU today during the Prime Minister’s official visit to Poland. It paves the way for closer cooperative ties in space between France and Poland, a longstanding partner with whom CNES has already accomplished notable successes. Poland has great ambitions in space and CNES is happy and proud to work with POLSA to achieve them.”