France lights up the stars

29 January 2019 Business

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“La France au cœur de l’aventure spatiale” (France, a country at the heart of space adventure) is the title of the photo exhibit displayed on the metal grates of the Ministry or Higher Education, Research and Innovation, at rue Descartes in Paris to “light up the stars”!

The educational exhibit designed by the Ministry or Higher Education, Research and Innovation in collaboration with the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES in French) includes 15 large photos detailing the current progresses in the space departments to underline the fact that France is a major player in this industry.

Indeed, France has a critical role in this European and international endeavour. Financial and human investments in space research reach 2.3 billion euros per year in the space industry, which is a third of the complete European space budget, and about 16,000 people working in the space industry. Through these investments, France is at the second rank worldwide after the US in terms of institutional space budget per capita.

The exhibit is also included in the recent space news stories, to which France actively participated. In 2018, many events took place including France and its international partners. The French seismometer sent to Mars of the launch of an exploration mission on planet Mercury are a couple of examples of iconic operation currently implemented.

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Other important events are now scheduled for the years to come, with an exploration mission of Mars in 2020 piloted by NASA, where a rover equipped with the new French-American camera SuperCam will travel on the red planet.

Additional future operations will also involve France: French astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s return to the International Space Station, as announced by Frédérique Vidal, Minister for Higher Education and Research during her speech to the university community.