Editorial | Vanishing Savings at CNES

Government agencies and their political overseers are fond of touting potential cost savings from operational efficiencies, but rarely do they actually deliver. It therefore is noteworthy that the French space agency, CNES, has been able to reduce its internal operating cost, in part through better management practices at the CNES-run Guiana Space Center, Europe’s satellite launching facility. Over the last decade, CNES has reduced the spaceport’s operating costs by about 14 percent —even as the number of rockets that launch from the spaceport increased from one to three — through measures including having prospective contractors regularly compete for work.