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French Space Officials Offer Support to U.S. Colleagues
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau
posted: 02:55 pm ET
13 September 2001
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france_nasa_010913 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Leaders of the French space agency (CNES) have called for all of its employees at facilities around the world to observe a minute of silence on Friday in support of their friends in the United States, officials said Thursday. "The further we receive your messages and we get the reports of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, through the media and on TV sets, the closer to you we feel and we share your rightful anger and deep sadness," Eric Cerf-Mayer, a CNES manager, said in a note e-mailed to friends and colleagues. CNES president Alain Bensoussan and CNES director general Gérard Brachet will first broadcast a statement via satellite to French space agency workers in Paris, Evry and Toulouse, France, as well as at the Arianespace launch site near Kourou, French Guiana in South America. A minute of silence then will follow. "Our thoughts of compassion, profound sympathy, and infinite respect will be directed towards the unfortunate victims of this blind abjection, their families, colleagues and relatives, all those who have been hurt and will stay distressed for a long time," Cerf-Mayer wrote. "Above all, we want to pay respect to all those who have in charge the destiny of America and lead its vital activities, among them all of you, our partners in the space venture," he said, noting that all member nations of the European Union have declared Friday as a day of mourning. "Here at CNES, we think it is a universal mourning, and we want to assure that we share your grief." Meanwhile, CNES has released an image of New York City captured by the Spot imaging satellite at 11:55 a.m. EDT (1555 GMT) Tuesday, about three hours after the first hijacked commercial airliner was deliberately flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Both of the 110-story towers had already collapsed by the time this image was recorded from an orbit 510 miles (822 kilometers) over Earth's surface. The false color picture shows two bright red spots where the towers had stood, the color marking the intense heat from the fires still burning. Dark smoke from the fires and debris plume can be seen drifting away from the site.
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