France's space industry is heading for a major restructuring largely as a result of the failure of the maiden launch of the upgraded Ariane V ECA rocket in December.
The president of French space agency CNES, the principal shareholder in Europe's Arianespace, responsible for the system's Kourou launch operations in French Guyana, has resigned. Alain Bensoussan, at the helm of CNES since 1996, says he faced "particularly fundamental challenges" but lacked the "vital means to continue the job" and had no other option but to resign.
At the request of French research minister Claudie Haigneré he will continue to handle the agency's affairs until a successor is appointed by the French government. The next appointee will be a chief executive, rather than president, at the suggestion of Roger-Maurice Bonnet, chairman of the space policy think-tank which handed its report on suggested reforms to Haigner‚ in mid-January. She, in turn, will present a government action plan on space policy in mid-March.
The hard-hitting Bonnet report says the management team at CNES "has been virtually paralysed for 12 years" and criticises the fact that "there are no clear decisions on priorities".
Source: Flight International