France in Space No. 208

** 1: FIRST SPACE FLIGHT FOR PHLIPPE PERRIN

Philippe Perrin, French astronaut, will fly for the first time aboard the
space shuttle Endeavour. During the 13-day STS-111 mission, he will perform
three long and complex spacewalks, together with the American astronaut,
Franklin Chang-Diaz, who will be performing his 7th space flight. “From the
dream of becoming an astronaut, I have reached a stage where I feel
overwhelmed by technical details knowing that I have a mission to fulfill.
I will enjoy the flight once aboard the shuttle.” Declared Philippe Perrin.
Perrin, former fighter pilot in the French Air Force, was recruited in 1996
by CNES as an astronaut, and then included by NASA in its astronauts team.
[AFP, 05/21/2002]

** 2: ARIANESPACE 2001 FINANCIAL RESULTS

Following the Board of Directors’ meeting today in Evry, France,
Arianespace announced its financial results for 2001 with a reported loss
of 193 million euros on sales for a 807 million euro income. The loss is
the consequence of : Ariaespace’s decision to set up reserves due to the
rapid deterioration of the global launch services marketplace over the past
few months, and the impact on the company’s business of the incident that
occurred last July during Ariane 5 10th launch. Arianespace Chairman and
CEO, Jean-Marie Luton, proposed an aggressive action plan that will allow a
rapid return to the breakeven point in the company’s business.
[Ariaenspace Press Release, 05/17/2002]

** 3: ARTEMIS WILL SOON JOI0D0S NOMINAL ORBIT

The experimental ion propulsion system designed to test a new form of
technology for station-keeping on future satellites is performing well in
its new role to get ESA’s Artemis to geostationnary orbit. The Artemis
(Advanced Relay and Technology MISsion) communication satellite, built by
Alieno Spazio as prime contractor, was launched by Ariane 5 last summer.
After launch, the spacecraft was left in a far lower orbit than expected.
The mixed ESA and Alien Spazio team has adapted the use of the ion
propulsion system combined with unconventional operation of the
chemical-based thrusters and it is finally paying off. To date, the first
milestone of 1000 kilometers increase in orbit has been overshot. The orbit
raising operations started on February 19 2001. If all goes according to
plan, Artemis will reach geostationnary orbit before the end of the year.

[ESA Press Release, 05/17/2002]

** 4: SATELLITES AND GROUND TRANSPORTATION

On April 29, CNES (French Space Agency) and INRETS (French Research
Institute on Transportation and Safety in Transportation) signed a
partnership agreement to strengthen the cooperation between the two
organizations. This cooperation will concern ground localization of moving
vehicles, telecommunications, and satellite earth observation for
transportation. These new technologies will be applied in the management of
the vehicles fleet, the monitoring of containers, the operation of
infrastructures and systems security. The partnership between CNES and
INRETS will first and foremost focus on the localization/navigation and
telecommunication sectors, and will help consolidate France’s position in
the strategic sector of satellite positioning technologies. A national
navigation pole will therefore be created whose scope is eventually meant
to become European.
[CNES Press Release, 05/16/2002]

** 5: ERRATUM

In France-In-Space n¡206, article 1 “FIRST SPOT 5 IMAGE”, there was a
spelling mistake in the Spot image Internet address. The address should
read www.spotimage.com.

[From Agence France Presse (AFP), Arianespace Press Release, CNES Press
Release, ESA Press Release]