CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales)
| CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) | |
|
[ IMAGE PLACEHOLDER ]
agency seal, illustrative placeholder | |
| Country | France |
|---|---|
| Parent department | French Government |
| Established | 1961 |
| Status | Active |
| Status | Active |
CNES, France’s national space agency, has hosted the country’s official civilian UFO investigation unit — GEIPAN and its predecessors GEPAN and SEPRA — continuously since 1977, an arrangement unusual among major space agencies worldwide.
Rationale
Housing the UFO investigation function within the space agency rather than the military reflects a distinctively French policy choice toward transparency and public scientific engagement on the subject, in contrast to the more security-focused postures of the U.S. and UK programs.
Current role
CNES continues to provide GEIPAN’s institutional home, technical resources, and public website infrastructure, underscoring the agency’s ongoing, decades-long commitment to the subject as a matter of open scientific inquiry rather than classified defense assessment.
[1]See also
References
- ^ CNES corporate history and GEIPAN institutional pages, cnes.fr.