CNES

The National Centre for Space Studies is the French government space agency. Its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is under the supervision of the French Ministries of Defence and Research.

It operates from the Toulouse Space Centre and the Guiana Space Centre, but also has payloads launched from space centres operated by other countries. The president of CNES is Philippe Baptiste. CNES is a member of Institute of Space, its Applications and Technologies. It is Europe's largest and most important national organization of its type.