Space: CNES-UKSA bilateral meeting

CNES Press Release. Download the full document here.

Tuesday 20 October, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall and David Parker, Chief Executive of the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA), met at CNES’s Head Office in Paris. Following the framework cooperation arrangement signed in January 2014, the two agency heads had agreed to meet regularly for a status check. Their last meeting was in June this year at the 51st Paris Air Show at Le Bourget.

31 January 2014, France and the United Kingdom signed a framework cooperation arrangement in the presence of the French President and UK Prime Minister.

Recognizing their common interest in the use of outer space for peaceful purposes and acknowledging the increasing need of space technologies and applications to better understand our planet and to preserve its future, this framework arrangement seeks to reinforce the two agencies’ working relationship by promoting bilateral cooperation and helping to consolidate the European space ambition supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Union.

Jean-Yves Le Gall and David Parker focused on Earth-observation programmes and progress on missions that CNES is pursuing with UKSA, such as IASI-NG and SWOT, as well as the forthcoming COP21 climate conference in December in Paris, in the light of the many Earth-observation tools that are helping to better understand and anticipate climate change.

The two agency heads then reviewed a range of topics of shared interest, including ESA-EU relations and a status check on the Galileo and Copernicus programmes and the European GNSS[1] Evolution Programme (EGEP). Other items addressed were preparations for next year’s ESA Ministerial Council meeting, UK space priorities and the evolution of its space policy.

After the meeting, Jean-Yves Le Gall commented: “Our discussions with David Parker today were once again most constructive. The UK is continuing to pursue its growing space ambitions and through our regular meetings we are developing the joint activities set out in our framework cooperation arrangement and gearing up for the next ESA Ministerial Council meeting.”

[1] Global Navigation Satellite System

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