Jens Böhrnsen,
Mayor and President
of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
Bremen has been a hub of space activity for over fifty years and today it is the location that offers the broadest range of space activities in Germany. Indeed, it is in Bremen that the upper stage for Europe's Ariane 5 launchers is produced and payload satellites are built. It was here that the European laboratory Columbus for the International Space Station (ISS) was developed and assembled. Bremen is also where the exploitation activities of the European contribution to the ISS are managed and where the Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV) resupplying the ISS are assembled. Scientists from all over the world carry out experiments at the Bremen Drop Tower – a facility unique across Europe – conducting research at numerous associated institutes and facilities. Higher education establishments train students specialising in aerospace engineering, while some secondary schools place special emphasis on their pupils studying space-related topics.
The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is therefore delighted to be taking on the Presidency of the Community of Ariane Cities (CVA) this year, for the second time. 2012 will be an important year for the future of European space activities, since the ESA Council meeting at ministerial level in November will be required to take a number of far-reaching decisions.
As President of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, I cordially invite you to experience (anew) with us the scientific and economic dimensions of space activity via the many events planned.
With this CVA Presidency, we would also like to give the Ariane Cities and their citizens a voice, enabling them to take part in discussion of space policy issues. Bremen eagerly looks forward to hosting the various CVA-related events over the course of the year in conjunction with the space industry.
Jens Böhrnsen, Mayor of Bremen, 2012 President of the Community of Ariane Cities
The CVA City of Bremen is sponsoring an Ariane 5 launcher for the second time: Flight VA 205, with an Ariane 5 ES, scheduled for 23 March 2012. This mission will launch into orbit the third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3), which like the previous ATVs was designed by the European Space Agency and built by Astrium in Bremen. A major promotional event is being organised at Astrium around the video transmission of the launch. A large number of leading figures, experts from the world of space, and teachers and students, will be invited to attend. The CVA and Arianespace will be present. In addition, coverage of this event will be relayed to three schools and to the Universum Bremen Science Centre, with experts from the Hochschule Bremen (University of Applied Sciences) also participating. A sponsorship ceremony in Kourou is also planned.
→ For further information: Arianespace, Astrium , ESA, CNES
2011 saw the inaugural launch of Soyuz from French Guiana, and 2012 that of the small launcher Vega. Something has changed in the landscape as regards Europe's space transportation systems on offer. The family of European launchers has expanded and can at present deliver a broader range of launch services. It can therefore better position itself on a market which is very much subject to international competition.
We can expect that as a consequence, the European space industry, despite the difficulties it is facing, will need to draw yet further on its capacity for innovation and succeed in finding on the job market young engineers capable of meeting the demand for technological innovation inherent in the launcher sector. One of the CVA's tasks is to help them with this.
A message worth sharing
The CVA General Delegation wishes to share with you the following message. It was sent by Maurizio Mura, Senior Advisor to the Head of the Space Division of the AVIO Group, on 14 February 2012, the day after Vega's maiden flight, to Jean-Luc Bozet, CVA General Delegate.
"Your message of congratulations was greatly appreciated and confirms the strong sense of belonging to a community of members involved in the same high-risk business. This magnificent success was achieved thanks to true European cooperation, genuine team spirit and our pooled competences.
You are exposing young students to the basics of rocket engineering. We are trying to remain competitive, and to maintain and improve Europe's capability to access space, now and for the coming generations, by opening up new high-technology jobs for the future."
We thank Maurizio Mura for this very encouraging message.
AVIO and Colleferro in the limelight
Vega is the first European launcher to deploy three solid-propellant stages. It is designed to lift into low Earth orbit small and medium payloads of up to 2.3 tonnes. The maiden flight on 13 February served to put into orbit the LAGEOS satellite developed by ASI and eight small satellites. Vega is built by the ESA/ASI/CNES integrated project team, led at ESA's ESRIN establishment in Frascati by Stefano Bianchi, Head of ESA's Vega Programme. The Programme is being funded 58% by Italy and 25% by France. The launcher is largely built by the AVIO Group in Colleferro. ELV (European Launch Vehicle), the company whose joint shareholders are AVIO with 70% and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with 30%, is the industrial prime contractor.
The P80 first stage solid-propellant motor was developed by French space agency CNES and produced at AVIO/Colleferro; the industrial prime contractor is Europropulsion, a joint and equally owned subsidiary of AVIO and SAFRAN. The second and third solid-propellant stages, Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9, are also produced in Colleferro. Likewise for the fourth stage, Avum, which runs on liquid propulsion, its engine having been designed by the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye Design.
The P80, which is loaded with propellant at Kourou by the firm Regulus, controlled 60% by AVIO and 40% by Snecma Propulsion Solide (SPS), SAFRAN Group, has a carbon fibre casing structure manufactured by AVIO and a nozzle built by SPS. Based in Bordeaux, SPS is, like AVIO, a CVA member. Colleferro and Bordeaux are CVA Cities.
→ For further information: ESA / ESA multimedia
(Vega_PressKit_06-02-2012_FR.pdf / Vega_factsheet_06_02_2012_v02.pdf)
CNES / AVIO / Arianespace
New premises for the ESA and CNES Directorates of Launchers
The ESA Directorate of Launchers and the CNES Directorate of Launchers have respectively left 8-10, rue Mario-Nikis, Paris (15th arrondissement) and the Evry-Courcouronnes site (where Arianespace remains). In early January 2012, these teams moved into the Carré Daumesnil office complex in Paris (12th). The ESA and CNES services have sent us some photos of the Paris-Daumesnil site to give you some idea of what the new set-up looks like, until you have an opportunity to see it for yourself.
→ See photos.
Initiatives for the long term - In addition to starting up this CVA Presidency Newsletter (Number 2 of which you are currently reading), François Garay, Mayor of Les Mureaux, and his team were keen to see continue other initiatives taken under the 2011 CVA Presidency. These include European summer jobs, the "Forum européen Intelligence et Déplacement", lectures and also the "Odyssée de l'Espace" programme for school students, which for its part will be extended through to June 2012. At the last CVA Council of Mayors meeting held at the Hôtel de Ville de Paris on 28 October 2011, the team proposed that other Ariane Cities continue some of these initiatives. This proposal was well received by the participants.
This symposium, part of the aforementioned Forum, addressed the issue of 'sleeping patents' capable of being used by firms in all sectors. It was organised by the Ariane City of Les Mureaux, Astrium Space Transportation and the Pôle de Compétitivité Aerospatiale ASTech Paris Région, taking place at Astrium on 16 November 2011. The proceedings were opened by François Garay, Mayor of Les Mureaux, and Rémi de Badts, Site Director of Astrium ST/Les Mureaux, Vice-President of ASTech and at the time CVA Secretary General. The symposium presented to SMEs opportunities to innovate and develop their activity by making use of unused patents proposed by major patent holders in the aeronautics and space sectors.
The French space agency CNES will take over this activity as from November 2012. Whereupon other agencies or industrial firms will doubtless want to proceed with this further.
→ Contact: Sophie Vincent, Mayor's Head of Cabinet, Les Mureaux Town Hall.
The Ariane City of Les Mureaux has decided to continue through to June 2012 the activities geared to local school students of various ages and – interfacing with their respective Mayors – a number of surrounding localities that participated in 2011 Presidency activities. Launched in January 2011 by François Garay, Mayor of Les Mureaux, and Jean-Michel Coignard, Schools Inspector for the French department of Les Yvelines, the "Odyssée de l'Espace" initiative has enhanced the cohesion between the various authorities concerned: the French Education Ministry, the Mayors and their teams, and the heads of various teaching establishments. The proposed activities aroused the enthusiasm of a number of school students and teachers. Here, through the many games and teaching activities, the aim was to rekindle in a younger public a taste for science and mathematics. Mission accomplished!
→ Contact: Solen Aufrère or Paola Roméo, Les Mureaux Town Hall and CVA..
→ See photos.
European summer jobs (16-18 years): Through its Youth Information Bureau (BIJ), Les Mureaux was keen to extend to other Ariane Cities its summer jobs initiative, up and running there for over ten years now. Following the experience of July 2011, thanks to the cooperation with the CVA Cities of Liège and Salon de Provence, and the company GTD in Barcelona, this activity should resume in 2012.
→ For more information on this: BIJ, Les Mureaux Town Hall, CVA.
CVA rotating Presidency – One of the successes of the principle of the rotating Presidency as applied at the CVA doubtless stems from the diversity of approaches observable from one Presidency to another and the benefits that each of the Ariane Cities concerned derives from this. Some city representatives with whom the CVA is in contact ask with some surprise what there can be in common between the activities carried out in Madrid, a city of 3 million inhabitants, and those prepared for the citizens of Les Mureaux with its 33,000 inhabitants or Bremen with 550,000. The fact is that each team takes advantage of its local environment and succeeds in setting up an inspiring and diversified programme which always delivers its fair share of very positive surprises. The 2011 Presidency held by Les Mureaux – like that of Madrid in 2010 and Hardthausen/Lampoldshausen in 2009 – very much kept up that tradition.
The Closing Ceremony for the 2011 CVA Presidency took place on 9 December at Les Mureaux Town Hall, where a photo exhibition showing a selection of the Presidency's projects and highlights was open to visitors for two weeks. This also provided an opportunity to take stock of the year's wealth of events, which had kept the various team project leaders and their teams busy. The CVA especially thanks Sophie Vincent, Marielle Savina, Solen Aufrère, Boris Venon, Paola Roméo, Dalilha Bentahar, Caroline Le Gavrian, Nicolas Wecker, Nicolas Ferrand and all those who – in their teams, or at other institutions or firms in the town and adjoining localities – helped organise this Presidency's projects. The CVA thanks all the partners of Les Mureaux and in particular the cities of Paris, Salon de Provence, Liège, Barcelona, Meulan, Poissy, as well as the Parc aux étoiles/Triel-sur-Seine and the Syndicat Intercommunal à Vocation Unique of the Verneuil-Les Mureaux aerodrome.
→ See Closing Ceremony photos.
70 events (workshops, outings, exhibitions),
1,300 school students took part in the "Odyssée de l'Espace" programme,
450 children and teenagers signed up for extracurricular events (astronaut pool training, sound-effects workshop, brief history of art, various projects, etc.),
10 lectures attracting audiences of over 500 on various topics such as The Void: From Plato to Space, Journey through the Solar System, Satellites for Meteorology, Space and Defence, etc.,
2 sky- and star-gazing sessions over the summer,
10,000 visitors attended flagship activities such as the week-long air force exhibition and the visit of the mobile science lab lorry from the French TV channel France 3 programme "C'est pas sorcier".
And in pictures
To see some impressive photos of the 2011 CVA Presidency, go to the address below. Plus, Les Mureaux Town Hall has a surprise in store for us in this regard!
→ See photos
The CVA is currently preparing along with the participants, organisers and partners, the programme for its 2012 Summer School. This will be held at the Ecole de l'Air in the Ariane City of Salon de Provence from 1 to 27 July. The call for candidates was issued end-February. The theme this year is "human spaceflight" and support from several astronauts is being arranged.
Intercultural Seminars on "Space and Europe": Les Mureaux, Liège and Bremen
The first of the CVA Intercultural Seminars took place at Les Mureaux from 15 to 21 October 2011, the participants being accommodated at the international residence l'Escale in the delightful setting of l’Ile des Migneaux, Poissy (→ See photos). The second session of the CVA Intercultural Seminars was in Liège from 18 to 25 February 2012. The young participants aged 15 to 17 came from the Ariane Cities of Bremen, Liège and Les Mureaux. Liège did much to assist with the organising. Many activities both scientific and cultural were on offer to the participants, firstly in Liège, with intercultural and scientific activities and a visit to the industrial site of the company Techspace Aero, an industry member associate of this CVA City. These were followed, in Cologne, by visits to ESA’s European Astronaut Centre (EAC) and to the German Aerospace Center (DLR) site. On the cultural side, the activities included trips to the exhibition on Ernest de Bavière, former Prince-Archbishop of the Principality of Liège, an acquaintance of Galileo’s, and to the Brussels Parlementarium, an interactive visitors’ centre on the European Union and the European Parliament.
→ See photos
The third Intercultural Seminars from 17 to 24 March will be hosted by Bremen as part of its 2012 CVA Presidency. This will notably include visits to the Drop Tower at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen; to the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI); to the Astrium and EADS sites; to the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research; and to the Klimahaus 8°Ost exhibition building in Bremerhaven. The participants will be invited to attend an official reception at the City Hall. They will carry out science activities at the DLR and build model water and solid-fuelled rockets, which they will then launch. They will also be asked to design a postcard and produce a DVD.
→ See sites: ZARM ; DFKI ; AWI and Klimahaus
These CVA Intercultural Seminars come under the responsibility of Jean-Luc Menu, of the association Union peuple et Culture and the Franco-German Youth Office (OFAJ/DFJW). He is assisted during them by several intercultural and scientific coordinators. The Seminars receive financial assistance from the Youth Office.
This programme, which this year is being hosted by the Ariane City of Hardthausen/Lampoldshausen, Baden-Württemberg, is open to European secondary-school students aged 15 to 17 years, and will bring together some 30 participants. Run in close collaboration with the DLR_School_Lab, the German Aerospace Center's interactive training laboratory, it will organise activities fostering awareness of the space sector, as well as science workshops (model water rockets or micro-rockets made and launched). Tours of firms and a range of cultural and sporting activities will also be offered. The following are planned (subject to change): an official reception at the Hardthausen town hall; visits to the DLR aerospace museum, to Astrium's test benches, and to the Audi firm at Neckarlsulm; and on the leisure side: canoeing on the Jagst; mountain-biking along the Kocher river; visits to the Aquatoll aquatic park at Neckarlsulm and to the Tripsdrill theme park, etc.
The calls for applications will be sent to CVA Members end-March 2012.
→ Contact for application forms and further info: Magali Foulet, CVA Secretariat.
In the framework of its 2012 presidency, Bremen will be hosting, on 11-13 July, the Educational Network of Ariane Cities (REVA) Seminar for Teachers, and, on 12-13 July, the Meeting of Headteachers and Educational Advisers. This 5th seminar will take place at the new DLR_School_Lab, in the DLR Space Systems Institute (Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme) in Bremen. Its main theme will be launcher dynamics, that is, flight guidance and control techniques, etc., which enable payloads (satellites) to be injected into target orbits. The participants will tour EADS and Astrium, as well as Bremen's Technology Park, situated next to the University; the ZARM and Drop Tower at the University of Bremen; the DFKI (German research centre for artificial intelligence) and the satellite manufacturer OHB.
During their stay, the teachers will have the opportunity to meet the headteachers present in Bremen for the Meeting. The REVA programme is organised by the CVA, in cooperation with ISSAT (Institut au Service du Spatial, de ses Applications et Technologies), based in Toulouse. This programme is under the responsibility of Philippe Noël, CVA Bureau Member and ISSAT consultant.
You will find on the REVA Portal the results of the questionnaire completed by the 2011 REVA Seminar participants, as well as the comments of two of the teachers on the benefits they derived from it and which they would apply to their teaching. The call for participants for the 2012 Seminar was sent out at the beginning of March (preliminary version).
→ More about
→ For further information: "contact@issat.com" or "administrateur@education-cva.eu".
→ See CVA site, click on Programmes, then REVA. Alternatively google ISSAT Toulouse to find ISSAT site and scroll down to REVA.
→ See REVA 2011 article, City of Les Mureaux and GIFAS.
→ See photos REVA 2011
This new section headed "Cooperative projects" has been opened on the REVA Portal further to a proposal by participants in Seminars for Teachers and Meetings of Headteachers and Educational Advisers. Members of the network are invited to use the site to put forward suggestions for projects and share ideas and experience.
→ See: http://www.education-cva.eu/fr/portail/projets_cooperatifs.htm and GIFAS
The next meeting of the Council of Mayors, which is hosted by the Bremen Presidency, will be held in Berlin on 23-24 May. It will take place at the Permanent Representation of the State of Bremen. "Space Vision of the Young generation and the Future of European Launcher Systems" is the theme of the workshop open to the public in which young people, as future experts and decision-makers, will compare their ideas with those of today's space development and applications specialists and political decision-makers. Peter Hintze, Secretary of the Parliamentary State and Coordinator of the Federal Government for Aeronautics and Space and Dr Rolf Densing, Director of Space Programmes of the DLR have confirmed their participation.
→ See Bremen site (German / English)
Council of Mayors' second meeting of 2011, at Paris City Hall (27-28 October)
This Newsletter is an opportunity to have a look at photos of the second 2011 meeting which, thanks to the initiative of the Presidency of Les Mureaux, took place in the grand setting of the Salon Bertrand, at Paris City Hall.
→ See photos : Boat trip on the river Seine at the invitation of the 2011 Les Mureaux Presidency (27 October) – Meeting in the Salon Bertrand, at Paris City Hall: debates; announcement of the "Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération" (m2A) candidacy for the 2013 CVA Presidency; presentation of the 2012 CVA Presidency programme by the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen; relaxing and chatting with guests at the closing drinks of the 2011 Les Mureaux Presidency (28 October).
2012 CVA calendar
→ See CVA site
List of CVA Members (March 2012)
→ See CVA site
• President: Jens Böhrnsen, Mayor and President of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen,
• Deputy Vice-President: Martin Günthner, Senator for the Economy, Work and Ports,
• General Secretary: Thorsten Burmann, Vice-President Launchers Astrium Germany, Astrium Space Transportation.
These new members will replace the 2011 Presidency members, whom we warmly thank for all their work and their varied and richly inspiring contribution. They are:
• President: François Garay, Mayor of Les Mureaux,
• Deputy Vice-President: Albert Bischerour, Deputy Mayor of Les Mureaux,
• General Secretary: Rémi de Badts, Director of Astrium/Les Mureaux site, Astrium Space Transportation.
Festival of imaginative space (23-25 March)
The Observatoire de l'Espace, the French Space Agency (CNES) cultural centre, is holding this event at CNES HQ in Paris on 23-25 March. It is the second such festival and will enable the public to discover creations by 28 artists who have undertaken an offbeat exploration of the space universe.
→ Contact: Julien Watelet, CNES.
→ For further information: Observatoire de l'Espace programme / press release.
This event, for virtual reality and converging technologies, will take place at Laval, in the French department of Mayenne. CNES will have a stand there.
→ For further information: http://www.laval-virtual.org/
This high-level symposium organised by ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Operations will bring together representatives from the five International Space Station (ISS) partner agencies and from other spacefaring nations, members of the international science community, the space industry, academia and the media, as well as engineers, experts and astronauts. Places will be reserved for a small group of students from across Europe and members of the public with a proven interest in space activities. It is planned to review and discuss the key accomplishments in research made to date, looking at case-studies in fundamental and applied research and the actual or potential spin-offs for the benefit of humankind, as well as to discuss the future path and priorities for research onboard the ISS.
→ Contact: Sylvie Ijsselstein, Promotion Office, Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Operations, ESA
→ See ESA site
This conference, organised by the European Network of Science Centres and Museums, is being hosted this year by the Cité de l'Espace at Toulouse. CNES will have a stand there.
→ For further information: http://www.ecsite.eu/
Organised jointly by ESA and CNES, this symposium on systems and services for small satellites will take place at the Grand Hotel Bernardin Convention Centre, Portorož, Slovenia at the invitation of Space-Si, Slovenia's centre of excellence for space science and technology.
→ For further information: ESA / CNES
In addition to the fair "Le Timbre fait son événement", which will take place in the Parc floral de Paris at Vincennes, and at which CNES will have a stand, the European Space Agency and the company La Poste (French post office) are running a competition for 10-17 year-olds from 30 January to 16 April. This involves designing a stamp for letters to be sent to Mars. The first prize is a trip for two to French Guiana to visit the Guiana Space Centre (CSG). On the occasion of the stamp fair, the French Southern and Antarctic Lands are planning to issue a set of five stamps on CNES and polar regions.
→ For further information: La Poste and CNES
Global actors in the space sector and space applications will gather at the third Toulouse Space Show, organised by CNES and the Midi-Pyrénées region. For the first time, ESA will be a partner in this event, which will again take place at the Pierre Baudis convention centre. Papers will cover the following themes: space applications, space and the law, managing knowledge for space missions, antenna technology, applied electromagnetics.
→ Contact : Julien Watelet, CNES-Paris ou Frédéric de Dguebouadze, CNES-Toulouse.
→ For further information: click here
Organised by the Forum Ariane Lampoldshausen and the State of Baden-Württemberg, in the framework of preparation of the next EU Council of Research Ministers, this 3rd ESTTF will take place at the Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg in Brussels on 9-10 July 2012. It will bring together decision-makers, industrialists and scientists on the theme "Sustainability and European space exploration – a chance for the energy sector". The previous Forum took place in Berlin on 24-25 March 2009 in the framework of the 2009 CVA Presidency held by Hardthausen/Lampoldshausen and its mayor Harry Brunnet.
→ Contact: Forum Ariane Lampoldshausen, Carolin Krebs, Assistant, Mayor's Cabinet.
You can find out more about the French Space Agency's 50th anniversary on its site. You can access: videos; the speeches given by Nicolas Sarkozy, French President, and Yannick d'Escatha, CNES President, in Toulouse on 22 November 2011; the speeches given by François Fillon, French Prime Minister, and Yannick d'Escatha at the Musée des arts et métiers de Paris on 30 November 2011; the press pack; the special 50th anniversary section in the magazine CNESMAG; details about the book "C'est l'espace!", published by Gallimard; details about the exhibition "Au cœur de l'espace", mounted by CNES at the Musée des arts et métiers (click on Evènements, then parutions, on the left); information on all the events relating to the 50 years of CNES (click on Evènements, then parutions, on the left).
→ For further information: CNES
The start of this year has been an opportunity to announce to the media the events planned for 2012. You can find them on the ESA and DLR websites. Please check the dates in the course of the year, as they can change.
→ For further information: (English) ; (French) ; (German)
DLR
→ For further information: (German)
The CVA Presidency's Newsletter is an e-publication open to all CVA members (Cities, firms), partners and alumni wishing to share information with other members of the association. To contact the editorial staff, email Birgitt Rambalski, Head of Protocol, Bremen City Hall; Claudine Rathjen, Senatskanzlei Bremen; Solen Aufrère, Mairie des Mureaux ; Anne du Fretay, CVA Project Manager, ESA or Magali Foulet, CVA General Delegation Assistant.
Translation: Anthony Blend and Myriam Julia, ESA.
Photo credits: © AVIO; © Ville de Brême- Press Office of the Senate; Bremen-meinestadt.de; © CNES; © CNES/Observatoire de l'Espace/Atelier JeanB; © CNES/Active Design; © CNES/Hervé Piraud; © CNES/Un Oeil Neuf; © EADS-Astrium; © ESA-D. Ducros; © ESA-S. Corvaja; © ISSAT; © Ville de Liège; © Ville des Mureaux; © Ville des Mureaux-Philippe Halle; © Ville des Mureaux-B.Venon; © ULg; © Community of Ariane Cities, CVA.