The Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) is the french space agency, and they’re doing us the great honor of hosting especially for us tonight a kick-off event on Ariane 6, the future european launcher! Indeed, CNES is a pivotal player in Europe’s space programme, and a major source of initiatives and proposals that aim to maintain France and Europe’s competitive edge.
The agency’s more-than 2,400-strong workforce constitutes an exceptional pool of talent, with some 1,800 engineers and executives, 35% of whom are women.
This video retraces the french, and then european, rockets’ history. In 1965, France was the 3rd country, after the Soviet Union & the United States, to successfully launch a rocket into space and place a satellite in orbit.
La saga des fusées européennes par CNES
– More information about the CNES on their website (in english or in french)