The second flight of ESA’s newest launch vehicle has been completed from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana to deploy the Proba-V, VNREDSat-1 and ESTCube-1 satellite payloads.

From 24 to 26 May, the first SpaceUp Paris event is being organized by a community of bloggers with a passion for space. An innovative initiative that CNES is supporting by hosting a kick-off session on 24 May at the agency’s Launch Vehicles Directorate, focusing on Ariane 6.

High-altitude winds over the Spaceport in French Guiana have resulted in the decision by Arianespace and the European Space Agency to postpone last night's Vega mission with three satellite on board. The launch is now scheduled for the night of May 6-7, 2013.

To carry out additional checks on the mobile gantry system used on the Vega launch complex (SLV), the European Space Agency (ESA) and Arianespace have decided to postpone the Vega launch VV02 for 24 hours on 3 May (Kourou), 4 May (Paris).

Among the measures adopted on Wednesday 3 April at the French cabinet meeting at the Elysée Palace, Jean-Yves Le Gall was appointed to head the board of the French space agency, becoming the 11th President of CNES.

Cyclone Haruna hit the southwest coast of Madagascar on 22 February. The very next day, the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters, currently chaired by France, was activated to come to the aid of the 20,000 people left homeless in its wake.

With its latest achievement, Planck - designed to remove all remaining doubts and calculate the fundamental parameters with unprecedented accuracy - has accomplished its mission.

Last November in Naples, ministers in charge of European space policy gave their blessing for a new Ariane 6 launcher designed to help Europe stay ahead in the satellite launch services market.

The Indian SARAL satellite was placed into orbit Monday 25 February from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in southern India. The satellite is carrying AltiKa, a new-generation radar instrument developed by CNES to tell us more about Earth’s climate.

The launcher smashed its own world record Thursday 7 February, lofting 10,350 kg into geostationary transfer orbit. The Ariane 5 ECA lifted off on schedule at 18:36 Kourou time, 22:36 CET, carrying 2 telecommunications satellites: Amazonas 3 and Azerspace/Africasat-1a.

The French-Indian SARAL/AltiKa altimetry mission is scheduled to launch 25 February from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in southern India. Its goal is to enable closer monitoring of sea-surface height from space.

François Colas, an astronomer at the IMCCE celestial mechanics and ephemeris calculation institute (IMCCE), observed the passage of the asteroid Apophis from the Pic du Midi Observatory on 6 January.

At a gathering on Tuesday 8 January to express his New Year wishes to the agency’s personnel, CNES President Yannick d’Escatha announced he will be standing down this year when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 65 for heads of government agencies in France. On this occasion, Geneviève Fioraso, the Minister for Higher Education and Research, paid him a glowing tribute at CNES head office in Paris.

While the seasons are a familiar feature of Earth, those on Titan are largely unknown. A team of researchers has obtained a tantalizing glimpse of a seasonal shift on Saturn’s moon thanks to data from the Cassini spacecraft.

1 December, a year after the launch of Pléiades-1A, Pléiades-1B will join its twin satellite in orbit at an altitude of 694 km. The Soyuz launcher is set to lift off from the Guiana Space Centre at 3:02 CET.

Why are 12 volunteers about to spend 21 days in bed, lying with their heads tilted below horizontal? Their experience will help to understand changes in astronauts' bodies in space as well as in bedridden people on Earth.

The 3rd and 4th satellites of the Galileo global satellite navigation system were launched one week ago from the Guiana Space Centre. They have now joined their predecessors, already in orbit for a year, to complete the in-orbit validation phase of the programme.

Soyuz launcher successful orbited 2 Galileo satellites from Guiana Space Center on 12 October 2012 at 18h15 (UTC).

France has taken over the rotating chair of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters for the next 6 months. Its term of duty is set to be an exceptional one, since the charter will now be providing the precious aid of its space assets to all disaster-hit nations.

Soyuz launcher will orbit 2 Galileo navigation system IOV (In-Orbit Validation) spacecrafts from the European spaceport in French Guiana on Friday 12 October 2012.

The 3rd European resupply vehicle undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on 28 September, ending a 6-month stay during which it ferried food and fuel to the crew.

Ariane 5 ECA launcher orbited telecommunications satellites ASTRA 2F and GSAT-10 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

A 2nd IASI meteorology instrument, developed by CNES, was orbited Monday 17 September aboard the European MetOp-B satellite.

This view of the landscape to the north of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the afternoon of the first day after landing.

The Curiosity rover, part of America's MSL mission, touched down on the Red Planet on Monday 6 August 2012, according to schedule. A confirmation signal was received at 7:31 a.m. (Paris time) at mission control at JPL, Pasadena, California.

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently selected the JUICE mission under its Cosmic Vision programme for 2015-2025. JUICE will reach Jupiter and its icy moons in 2030 and study them for 3 years, focusing in particular on the enigmatic Ganymede.

As scheduled this Wednesday 16 May, Europe’s Ariane 5 heavy-lift launcher orbited 2 telecommunications satellites from French Guiana, JCSAT-13 and VINASAT-2, completing its 48^th consecutive successful flight.

You can now watch all launches from the Guiana Space Centre live on the CNES website, starting on 15 May with the flight of an Ariane 5 ECA. On air from 23:57 CET.

The 3rd European ISS resupply craft docked with the station as planned Thursday 29 March at 0:31 CET. It will remain berthed to the orbital outpost for up to 6 months.

The 3rd European ISS resupply craft is scheduled to dock with the station during the night of 28-29 March. The event will be broadcast live on this website and followed on Twitter by 50 ‘tweeters’ invited by CNES and ESA to the ATV Control Centre in Toulouse.

The 3rd European ISS resupply spacecraft was successfully orbited Friday 23 March by an Ariane 5 ES launcher from French Guiana.

The launch of ESA's third Automated Transfer Vehicle is targeting 23 March, with a liftoff scheduled for 04:31 GMT (05:31 CET).

In response to the haemorrhagic dengue fever pandemic currently sweeping the planet, CNES and Sanofi Pasteur are joining forces to develop predictive mapping techniques for risk zones.

After 5 years in orbit, CNES’s space telescope just keeps on surprising with the quality of its observations. Olivier La Marle, astrophysics programmes coordinator at CNES, reviews its achievements so far.

The Russian Soyuz launcher successfully completed its second flight from French Guiana, orbiting the Pléiades, ELISA and SSOT satellites today.

The first of the 2 Pléiades satellites is set to be orbited on 16 December by a Soyuz launcher from the Guiana Space Centre, ushering in a new generation of Earth imagery to add to the existing panoply.

The Jason-1 ocean-observing satellite has been in orbit for 10 years. In that time, it has helped to build up a 20-year time series of continuous sea-surface measurements to enhance our understanding of climate change.

Curiosity, the ultra-sophisticated rover on the U.S. Mars Science Laboratory mission, lifted off for Mars on 26 November from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Several French laboratories are along for the ride.

The European Space Agency (ESA) succeeded in making contact with the Russian spacecraft stuck in Earth orbit on Tuesday 22 November, reviving hopes that the mission might be saved.

To mark its 50th anniversary, CNES is organizing in partnership with the le Musée des Arts et Métiers a temporary exhibition entitled Au cœur de l’espace (At the heart of space) from 1 December 2011 to 8 January 2012 in the Salle des Textiles.

The Russian spacecraft has so far failed to set a course for Mars and could re-enter Earth’s atmosphere early in January if engineers are unable to regain control of it.

The Russian probe failed to achieve its intended Mars trajectory a few hours after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Tuesday at 21:16 CET. The Russian space agency Roscosmos has 3 days to fix the problem.

The Russian space probe is scheduled to depart for Phobos, Mars’ small moon, on 8 November with several French instruments. Its goal: to determine Phobos’ origins.

The car-sized German spacecraft came down to Earth early on Sunday morning, some of the debris falling into the Indian Ocean. CNES helped to track the satellite’s trajectory and predict where it would fall.

The Russian launcher orbited the first 2 operational satellites of the future European Galileo navigation system Friday 21 October.

The first two satellites of Europe’s future navigation system are awaiting launch in French Guiana. Galileo will provide better coverage and positioning accuracy than the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).

Following an anomaly detected during fueling of the Soyuz launcher’s third stage, the Soyuz and its two Galileo satellites, along with the launch facility have been placed in a safe mode. New launch date announced today 5 p.m.

The French-Indian satellite dedicated to studying climate in the intertropical belt was successfully orbited Wednesday 12 October by an Indian PSLV launcher.

The French-Indian Megha-Tropiques satellite is all set to be placed into orbit from the Sriharikota launch base, India. It will be the first satellite to study the atmosphere and weather phenomena in intertropical regions, which are still poorly understood.

The French space agency is celebrating its 50th anniversary in pictures, starting with a photo exhibition and the issue of a special stamp, all between 26 September and 15 October.

For the last 4 years, Bernard Decré has been searching off the coast of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon for the wreck of a plane in which 2 French pilots, Nungesser and Coli, might have made the first Atlantic crossing 12 days before Lindbergh. Next spring, CNES is set to supply the ASM magnetometer from the Swarm mission in an attempt to find their biplane.

The sheer numbers of space debris objects now in Earth orbit are obliging space agencies to adopt measures to sustain the long-term utilization of space. CNES is working to tackle this issue on the United Nations COPUOS committee.

The SAM suite of instruments, which will study the organic composition of the Martian soil and atmosphere for the MSL mission, is all set to go. A French team is involved in the project.

In the wake of the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan, the SIROCCO research group in Toulouse, overseen by CNES, has been simulating the dispersal of contamination at sea using imagery from the Jason and Envisat satellites.

A joint project of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and CNES, CFOSAT is now entering its detailed definition phase. The future satellite’s chief goal will be to measure surface wind and the directional spectrum of waves.

Since 7 June 2010, the Paris Observatory and Côte d’Azur Observatory have been firing lasers into space - more specifically at the T2L2 instrument on the Jason-2 satellite. The purpose of this experiment, coordinated by CNES, is to synchronize two remote clocks with unprecedented levels of precision.

From 16 June, the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris is putting on a major permanent exhibition supported by CNES, dedicated to space and Earth exploration.

That’s the habitable space in cubic metres that the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) will have once its assembly is complete in 2011. 3 French astronauts have been ISS crew members: Claudie Haigneré (2001), Philippe Perrin (2002) and Léopold Eyharts (2008).