Schwartzenburg signs space deals
French Minister for Research Mr Roger-Gérard Schwartzenburg has been busy promoting France's aerospace industry recently, signing separate agreements for collaboration with Italy, the USA and Russia, within the space of a week. The agreement with Italy, formalised on 19 October brings closer collaboration between France's Centre nationales d'etudes spatiale (CNES) and l'Agence spatiale Italienne (ASI) particularly in the area of launch systems. The two agencies already have strong links through their work as members of the European Space Agency (ESA) Following this, Mr Schwartzenburg, signed a 'statement of intent' over the exploration of Mars with Daniel Goldin of the USA's National aeronautics and space administration (NASA) and Alain Bensoussan of the CNES on October 24. And on 30 October, during Russian premiere Mr Putin's visit to Paris, Mr Schwartzenburg met with Youri Koptiev, Director General of the Russian aerospace agency (Rosaviakosmos) to discuss future Franco-Russian cooperation in space-related activities. The two nations have a history of strong collaboration in this field including the creation of the STARSEM organisation to encourage the commercial production of the Russian Soyuz launch system, developing satellites to study scientific processes, and manned space flight. ity of
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