May 11, 2015

Philae sets down on the Champs-Élysées, Place Clémenceau, Paris, near the Grand Palais – Until Monday 25 May

Philae, the now-famous lander launched with the Rosetta spacecraft in March 2004 atop an Ariane 5 rocket, has stopped over at Place Clémenceau, on the Champs-Élysées, near the Grand Palais in Paris. The public can now view a full-scale model of the Philae lander, which will be on display alongside a 1:1600-scale replica of the nucleus of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko until Monday 25 May.

A host of key personalities were at Place Clémenceau this morning to celebrate the arrival of the Paris exhibition dedicated to the Rosetta mission and view the scale model of the Philae lander. They included Marie-Christine Lemardeley, Deputy Mayor of Paris, responsible for higher education, research and student life, Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of CNES, and Philippe Gaudon and Francis Rocard, who were involved in the Rosetta mission at CNES.
 
France took a particular interest in the landing of the Philae robotic explorer on the comet’s surface late last year, as the world held its breath. CNES’s Toulouse Space Centre played a key role in the adventure and was responsible for controlling many phases of the mission and especially Philae operations.

Initiated by CNES’s Education and Youth department with support from the Inspectorate General of the Ministry of Education, the construction of this spectacular model involved no fewer than 60 baccalaureate and two-year vocational diploma students and was coordinated by the Lycée Diderot in Paris. Alongside the model is another first: an extremely faithful 1:1600-scale replica of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko measuring more than 3 metres in length.

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Contacts
Pascale Bresson    Tel: +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39     pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
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
cnes.fr/presse
 

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Copyright Xavier Francolon
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