After a tribute to Valérian and Laureline universe during the 2017 edition, the CNES will be present this year at the Paris Air Show in a retro-futuristic pavilion and a chalet dedicated to working conferences, agreement and contract signatures and press conferences. As usual, they will be located at the foot of the Ariane 5 model from the Air and Space Museum.

The outside of the pavilion will be set with four 6 meters high (20 ft) LED screens, which will introduce the last French space news, and several models of CNES projects or collaborations in development.

Among them: the European oxygen/methane-fueled rocket engine Prometheus, MicroCarb satellite for the measurement of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere and the ELA 4 launchpad that will welcome the future European heavy-lift launch vehicle Ariane 6 in French Guiana.

Into the pavilion, four thematic modules will present: the last innovations on satellites and launch vehicles (in terms of miniaturisation, standardisation and digitalisation); the last advances in the Guiana Space Center; satellites applications (for Earth observation, telecommunication, defence and exploration) and international cooperations with a focus on activities lead in collaboration with the German Aerospace Agency (DLR).

At the center of the pavilion will be set a holographic animation that will present the future vision of the British science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), who was the first to suggest to set telecommunication satellites into a geostationary orbit. Furthermore, a “Zero-Gravity module” will allow the visitors to take a picture simulating microgravity into a space station.

A rich and varied program.

The noteworthy professional events will certainly be the presence of the President of the French Republic the opening day of the Air Show, accompanied by agencies' heads from all around the world, and the operational start of the Space Climate Observatory, as well as a round-table on exploration that will reunite, the morning after, members of the space agencies and then, during the afternoon, the results of the ISS Generation competition which consists in the selection of youthful experiences that will be carried by astronaute Thomas Pesquet during its next mission, not to mention the launch of the international hackathon — ActInSpace — on Wednesday.

During public days, a conference program will be organized with experts, scientists, chiefs of projects and engineers to talk about exoplanets, gravitational waves, martian exploration, BepiColombo mission toward Mercury, Kinéis constellation project dedicated to Internet objects and manned flights.