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Philippe Baptiste calls the suspension of the mission due to the war in Ukraine a “big disappointment”. The CEO is however convinced that it can be pursued without the Russians.
“There is an extremely clear and extremely strong need for Europe to develop its strategic autonomy”, said the president and director-general of the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) Philippe Baptiste on Friday March 18 on franceinfo, after the suspension of the ExoMars space mission, victim of the cessation of cooperation with the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
“It’s a big disappointment”deplores Philippe Baptiste, but “we can only note that this mission must be at least postponed”, he adds. However, he considers it possible to carry out this mission without the Russians. “either with our partners, or with other international partners, NASA, for example. But all that, of course, takes time.
“Obviously we are talking about additional months or years of development, with a certain number of questions of obsolescence of ExoMars, that is to say of the robot itself as it was designed.”
Philippe Baptiste, CEO of CNESat franceinfo
With regard to European strategic autonomy, “we are not starting today, we are already very mobilized on the subject”, reassures Philippe Baptiste. He also recalls that the new Ariane 6 launcher “which will replace not Ariane 5, but also Soyuz, will arrive in a few months”. “This crisis only remobilizes us and accelerates the calendar” already very disturbed.
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