05/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - French initiative on reusable launchers. On Friday 2 October, the CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), which is the organisation in charge of implementing the French space programme, and ONERA (the French organisation for aeronautic research) announced an initiative on reusable launchers. This will be a six-month study aiming to identify reusable launcher solutions and their technical viability. The programme has two parts - the first will focus on developing a first stage launcher with the ability to return to the launch base, and the second will be dedicated to implementation of the CEDRE multi-physics simulation platform for energy and the drive “to evaluate the thermal flows and efforts applied on the stage during the return when it only uses the blast of its rocket engines to brake”. The CNES and ONERA have already collaborated in the past on the Pré-X project for the design of an atmosphere re-entry vehicle, selected by the European Space Agency (ESA). (PH)