Debra J. Rahn
Headquarters, Washington, DC                       June 18, 1998
(Phone:  202/358-1638)

Douglas Isbell
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone:  202/358-1753)

RELEASE:  98-107

NASA AND FRENCH MINISTER ALLEGRE 
AGREE TO EXPAND SPACE COOPERATION

     NASA and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) have 
agreed to explore joint cooperation on the exploration of Mars, 
telemedicine and education.

     Daniel S. Goldin, NASA Administrator, and Professor Claude 
Allegre, French Minister for National Education, Research and 
Technology, met today in Washington, DC, to discuss current and 
future space cooperation.

     Mars exploration is envisioned as an international endeavor 
involving bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and France and 
the United States are interested in expanding cooperation in this 
area.

     NASA and CNES have agreed to explore joint cooperation on the 
exploration of Mars, with focus on the first Mars Sample Return 
mission, now scheduled for launch in the summer of 2005.  Current 
baseline discussions anticipate French provision of an Ariane-5 
launch vehicle and other hardware including the orbiter and 
science packages.  NASA will be responsible for the overall Mars 
Sample Return mission, including the lander, rover, and other 
mission elements.  As part of this cooperation, French scientists 
also will participate in various science activities associated 
with NASA's Mars Surveyor Program, for example, those addressing 
landing site and sample selection criteria and sample analysis.

     NASA and CNES already are cooperating in the 1996 Mars Global 
Surveyor mission, with CNES providing the Mars Relay 
communications package and contributing to the scientific payload.

     In the field of telemedicine, NASA's Commercial Space Center 
for Medical Informatics and Technology Applications at Yale 
University School of Medicine; the Institute of Telemedicine in 
Toulouse, France; and the Institute de Medecine et de Physologie 
Spatiale (MEDES) in Toulouse, France, have agreed to explore 
potential collaborations.  Cooperation between NASA's National 
Space Biomedical Research Institute and MEDES also is being 
explored.

     In addition, NASA and CNES cooperation in the field of 
education was initiated with the successful inauguration of a 
transatlantic computer hookup between French and American students 
on May 13, 1998, linking the Ecole Nationale de Chimie, Physique 
et Biologie, Paris; the Brooklyn School for Global Studies,  
Brooklyn, New York; the American School of Paris; and Kramer 
Junior High School, Washington, DC.

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