The French space program includes both civil and military spaceflight activities. It is the 3rd oldest institutional space program in history, along with the USSR and the US.
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Background
Space travel has long been a significant ambition in French culture. From the Gobelins' 1664 tapestry representing a space rocket, to Jules Verne's 1865 novel De la terre à la lune and George Méliès' 1902 movie Voyage dans la lune, space and rocketry were present in French society long before the technological means appeared to allow the development of a space exploration program.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the origins of the French space program are tied to French technological developments in aerospace and astronautics, notably the nascent airplane and rocket industries.
Robert Esnault-Pelterie appears as one of the early pioneers in space exploration design and rocket science. From 1908, he studied propulsion and space flight; without knowing the work of Russian mathematician Konstantin Tsiolkovsky at that time, he derived the mathematical equations for interplanetary flight, flight durations, and engine propulsion, and was later nominated President of the Chambre Syndicale des Industries Aéronautiques (Trade association of Aircraft industries) in 1912. He convinced physicist Jean-Jacques Barré, a pioneer in rocket propulsion, to collaborate on the design of a self-propelled cryogenic rocket. Between 1927 and 1933, Barré did extensive research and developed a rocket that could reach the upper atmosphere and space, the EA-41 Eole (see picture).
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History
The beginning of the institutional French space program dates back to 1946 when, right after World War II, the Laboratoire de recherches balistiques et aérodynamiques (LRBA) was created in Vernon to develop the next generation of rockets, partly taking advantage of the German development of the V2 rocket.
Before this and during the war, as Free France continued to function, the EA-41 was tested and improved by military personnel, from October 1942 through to 1945.
22 May 1952: Véronique N1 is successfully launched from the Saharan desert.
In 1958, President Charles de Gaulle directed the creation of several space research committees. In 1959, the Comité d'études spatiales was born under the supervision of Pierre Auger. In 1961, de Gaulle signed the creation of the Centre National d' Etudes Spatiales (CNES) to coordinate French space activities. Development of Western Europe's first carrier rocket, the Diamant, began in 1962, first launched in Algeria.
26 November 1965: at 15h 47mn and 21s, Asterix, the first French satellite in space, is successfully launched by a Diamant rocket from the Algerian desert. It is active for 2 consecutive days before ceasing to transmit.
In 1965, France's space launch pads and CNES settled in Kourou.
In 1973, France impulsed the creation of the European Space Agency and became its first contributor.
The French space budget, although stagnant since the early 2000s in constant euros, remains in absolute terms the largest of the member countries of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the second largest national budget (after the United States of America) at 2,33 Billion EUR. In 2004, this budget stood at 1.698 billion euros, with 685 million being transferred to the Paris-based ESA for the programs conducted under its supervision.
The Ariane rocket family is France's own launcher family, which use has been extended to the whole of ESA's member countries.
Its spaceport, near Kourou, was selected in 1964 to host all of France's launches. Later, it was selected as ESA's launch site. Before being in French Guiana, France's space launches were made from Algeria, in Colomb-Béchar and Hammaguir.
France thus benefits from the best ground position for launch sites on Earth, as its position (5,3° north of the equator) allows rockets to gain propulsion from the spinning of the Earth when launched eastward (+460 m/s) and save on propellant. No other governmental launch sites allow this level of physical parameters. It is also able to launch satellites into polar orbits from this spaceport.
Launch statistics
As of 2017, Kourou counts amongst the spaceports with the highest percentage of successful launches, both successive and overall. Here is a chronology of all orbital launches from the Kourou spaceport since 1970, under the French and European space programmes.
Flights by launcher
Flights by mission outcome
Charts include all orbital launches from Kourou; sounding rockets are excluded.
Historical data: launch tables from List of Ariane launches, Soyuz ST, Vega and Encyclopedia Aeronautica.
Last updated on 14 June 2017.
Collaborations
France's public involvement in space technologies is also deep into European programs such as Columbus and Automated Transfer Vehicle, through Thales Alenia, headquartered in Cannes.
The French space program includes collaborations between its institutions and other countries, European as well as other foreign countries and institutions (JAXA, ISRO, NASA, CNSA) in project ranging from the Herschel Space Observatory to BepiColombo, Saral/Altika and the Planck space observatory.
In 2016, for the COP21, CNES and ISRO impulsed a groundbreaking and worldwide plan to unite all space agencies for the gathering of satellite information and detection on greenhouse gas emissions, allowing more precise measurements and decision making.
In addition, CNES and ESA have a strong background of collaboration, notably building the largest single satellite surveyance program for earth's biological monitoring (Copernicus Programme).
Future projects and international collaborations
The construction of the Ariane 6 launcher is underway, after being approved by all ESA countries in 2016. It is designed by Airbus Safran Launchers.
CNES will provide essential instruments (cameras) to an Indian mission on the moon, due January 2018. A consortium led by the CNES will also provide Argos instruments on board the Indian mission Oceansat 3 in 2018.
In 2018, CNES and JAXA will launch the BepiColombo misison to study the magnetic field of Mercury and map its surface.
In 2018, Solar Orbiter will be launched by NASA, containing instruments designed by CNES and other French industrial actors.
Starting in 2018, the CFOSAT (China-France Oceanography SATellite) will be placed into Earth orbit to study ocean surface winds and waves.
The French mission Taranis (with international laboratories collaboration) will be also launched in 2018. It is the 1st satellite designed to observe lightning at altitudes of 20 to 100 km.
In 2021 France and Germany will launch their collaborative mission Merlin, due to study methane levels and concentrations in the earth's atmosphere.
2022 will mark the launch of JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer). It will study Jupiter and three of its moons with a view to gaining new insights into how life emerged. This mission is a collaboration of CNES with CNRS and ESA.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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