WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and French Space Agency President Yannick d'Escatha have signed four space cooperation agreements.
"The French Space Agency has a long history of participating with NASA in Earth and space science missions," Bolden said. "I am pleased to see this cooperation expand as we look to further engage the international community in exploring space."
Space agency officials said the agreements, signed last week in Washington, involve four specific missions, including:
-- A Mars atmosphere and volatile evolution mission scheduled to launch in 2013. The NASA-led project will provide the first direct measurements to address key scientific questions about the evolution of the red planet. France will provide a solar wind electron analyzer sensor to measure solar wind and ionospheric electrons.
-- A magnetospheric multiscale mission scheduled to launch in 2014. The NASA-led, four-spacecraft project, will make measurements to help explain the fundamental physical processes involved with magnetic reconnection, particle acceleration and turbulence on both the micro and meso scales in Earth's magnetosphere. France will provide portions of the instrument suite for the investigation.
