For the first time in its history, CNES Toulouse is opening its doors to the public

Since its creation in 1961 and until today, the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Toulouse has been a place inaccessible to the general public. It is now a thing of the past. The Cité de l’Espace now offers guided tours of the main facilities of the Toulouse Space Center. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to allow as many people as possible to go behind the scenes at CNES and understand space culture, a source of inspiration for young and old,” says Lionel Suchet, deputy managing director of CNES. Attention, the offer is reserved only for companies, associations and students within the maximum limit of 18 people per group for logistics and security reasons.

5 emblematic places to discover

The public will be able to discover five emblematic places of the CNES. The visit will begin with the Espace room where a guide will introduce you to the history of the Public Industrial and Commercial Institute, and more particularly to that of the Toulouse site. You will then see the CADMOS control room, the center dedicated to human spaceflight. It is in this room that CNES engineers interact with astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Visitors will thus be able to see and hear in real time what is happening 408 km above their heads.

The tour will continue through the Main Control Room. It is currently used to monitor the SWOT satellite, which stands for Surface Water Ocean Topography. This satellite is responsible for measuring the level of surface waters and oceans. This will be an opportunity to understand how satellites are sent into orbit. You will then proceed to the French Cospas-Sarsat Mission Control Center. Here you will learn about the rescue service for people in danger on Earth. In particular, it will be explained how the satellites, sent into space, allow the CNES engineers to process the distress signals emitted via beacons from the Earth.

The visit will end outdoors with a small tour of the planet Mars or the SEROM, the Test Site for Mobile Rovers, which is the largest in Europe. This medium allows the conditions of the Martian environment to be reproduced on Earth and is used to test the future navigation systems of these exploration vehicles.

Two options to choose from

The Cité de l’Espace offers two formulas. One includes only a visit to CNES. The other, at €68 per person, also includes admission to the Cité de l’Espace, access to one of the conference and seminar rooms and lunch in one of the restaurants of the Cité de l’Espace.

The Cité de l’Espace and CNES have designed this visit to allow everyone to understand the role of the Center in the space landscape and the challenges that are emerging in this field today. Just enough to gain some height keeping your feet on the ground of course.