Alain Bensoussan, President of the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), and Nelson Hadad Heresy, President of the Chilean Space Agency (ACE), will sign a framework agreement governing cooperation in space technologies and applications in Santiago, Chile, on 3 April 2002.
This agreement, which will run for a renewable term of four years, stems from the two agencies’ desire to work together in space, particularly for the purposes of environmental monitoring, Earth observation and space technology development.
The agreement also aims to foster mutually beneficial industrial cooperation initiatives in space between the two nations, and to exploit space applications to boost economic, social and scientific development.
Under the agreement, CNES and ACE will be working together in astrophysics, space medicine, microgravity, natural resource management and inventorying, infrastructure development (mapping, urban planning, telecommunications, etc.), environmental protection, natural hazard mitigation, satellite navigation, space law and any other areas conducive to strengthening technical, industrial and scientific ties between the two nations.
Cooperation may take the form of exchanges of information, data or personnel, joint studies and joint organization of seminars, symposia and exhibitions.
A Joint Committee on which both agencies will be equally represented will be set up shortly to coordinate activities.
