Macron in the USA. French astronaut on the moon.

Special Envoy in Washington

Emmanuel Macron began his visit to Washington on Wednesday morning with a “space sequence” intended to highlight that “Strategic Cooperation Area” where? “France is a leading partner” The United States. He was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, who also chairs the US National Space Council.

France’s National Center for Space Research (CNES) does not pretend to compete with the powerful NASA, but benefits from: “Sixty years of close cooperation”.. “France participates in all Mars missions” highlighted, in particular, the president of CNES, Philip Baptiste, accompanying the president.

This Franco-American partnership that Ms. Harris considers “vital”, highlighted three areas: Earth and climate observation, particularly through the SWOT mission, which monitors ocean and river levels, space exploration with the Artemis mission, which should return Americans to the Moon by 2025, and industrial cooperation. . The latter, achieved through an agreement with Arianespace to launch Amazon 18 satellites, is coupled with fierce competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Thomas Pesquet proposed by France

In this context, there is a “The strong demand of France”. so that astronaut Thomas Pesquet, a veteran of the International Space Station, boarded Artemis and became the first European to set foot on the Moon. “We will be very happy if we have a French astronaut on the moon, the president’s advisor accepts. We are not there yet, but it is being discussed. We hope that the United States will have a strong commitment. If NASA opens the door, the choice will go to the European Space Agency (ESA), where France now has two active astronauts, Thomas Pesquet since 2009 and the newly named Sophie Adenot (who also accompany the head of state to Washington). But President Joe Biden’s words on the matter are likely to do much to move the Frenchman to Earth’s satellite.