Philippe Lier, new director of the Guiana Space Center, succeeds Marie-Anne Clair

2023-11-27 13:45:27

Marie-Anne Clair, director of the CSG, leaves her position on December 1 in favor of Philippe Lier, her deputy director in charge of operations and technical resources. Arriving in 2019, Marie-Anne Clair will have weathered a global health crisis and laid the foundations for important projects at the CSG. Philippe Lier’s mission, however, is anything but a set path… There are numerous challenges for the European spaceport.

We can say that both are children of the French space industry. Marie-Anne Clair, 40 years of history with the National Center for Space Studies. As for Philippe Lier, he has held numerous positions at CNES since his arrival, he was only 23 years old at the time. He finally arrived at the start of the year at CSG, as director of operations.

If we can find points of convergence in their trajectories, like the passage through the direction of orbital systems or even involvement in microsatellite technology projects, their respective paths remain unique.

In four years Marie-Anne Clair has had to face a global health crisis, the cessation of Soyuz flights following the war in Ukraine or even the transformation of the Space Center… both from an organizational point of view of work than that of modernization. A transition which is only just beginning and which Philippe Lier will have to continue.

Philippe Lier did not hide his enthusiasm at the idea of ​​taking on the challenges to come. The recent successful tests for Ariane 6 have given relief to the teams. The new director will have to place the CSG in the challenges of tomorrow with the emergence of microlaunchers.

For him, despite the difficult situation, there are reasons to be confident. The future of the CSG will lie in several axes, he said.

The first axis is its modernization, its digitalization, it is new buildings, a new operations center and it is also an energy transition, with the installation of photovoltaic fields and biomass power plants. The idea being to completely green our consumption

Philippe LIER, new director of the CSG

The second axis mentioned by the director, “it’s the resumption of the cadence“. And to continue: “Today, we have a fairly low rate, but Ariane 6 will soon arrive, Vega C will soon return. The order books for these two launchers are full and we are also preparing to welcome new launcherssmaller in size“.

Finally, the third axis concerns actions in favor of the Guyanese territory. The director wishes to continue the partnerships established with the municipalities, the Territorial Collectivity of Guyana and the University of Guyana for the development of the territory.

There was a touch of emotion for Anne-Marie Clair during the handover on Friday, November 24, in Kourou. She will move to Toulouse to take up a position as technical and digital director. The adventure therefore continues, but the experience is not comparable to his four years working closely with operational teams.

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