CNES president resigns
Posted: Wed, Jan 29, 2003, 8:41 PM ET (0141 GMT) The head of the French space agency CNES announced Wednesday that he planned to resign because of a perceived lack of support from the French government. Alain Bensoussan said in a statement that he did not have "the essential means to continue my task" of reforming the agency under tightening budgetary constraints. Bensoussan was apparently prompted to resign after a report delivered to French research minister (and former astronaut) Claudie Haignere failed to give him a vote of confidence. Bensoussan, who has been president of CNES for seven years, has had to deal with declining budgets since 1997 and an increased number of programs, along with a workforce that has grown increasingly vocal in its concern that the agency has no clear direction. Gerard Brachet, the director-general of CNES a role roughly equivalent to chief executive compared to the president's role as chairman resigned late last year. Space News reported that while Bensoussan has desired to make his resignation effective immediately, the French government may ask him to stay on a few weeks until a successor is named.
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