CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales)

France's space agency co-developed SWOT's radar interferometer instrument and shares all mission data. - Equal partner in SWOT mission

NASA's SWOT satellite caught a magnitude 8.8 Kamchatka earthquake's tsunami in unprecedented detail on July 30, 2025. The waves weren't behaving like a single stable swell—they scattered, interacted, and dispersed across the Pacific basin like nothing scientists expected from textbook models. For 50 years, researchers treated big tsunamis as 'non-dispersive,' meaning they travel as one coherent wave. That assumption just died.

Updated Jan 6

CNES runs the ground reality in Kourou where European autonomy either launches—or slips again. - Key operator at Europe’s Spaceport; partner on Ariane 6 launch campaigns

VA266 didn’t just lift off—ESA has now formally declared the mission successful after acquisition of signal, confirming Galileo SAT 33 and SAT 34 are healthy with their solar arrays deployed. That shifts the story from launch drama to operations: early-orbit checks and in-orbit testing, then a slow drift toward Galileo’s 23,222 km operational regime.

Updated Dec 20, 2025