On completing his studies he
joined the French space agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
(CNES). Among his duties he took part in negotiations with ESA and
became an advocate of the European extension of the French Earth
observation programme.
This led to the start of a project at national level in 1977,
based on the Spot heliosynchronous satellite, launched in 1986 by an
Ariane-1 launcher that at the time, was still in the development
phase. In 1978 he was put in charge of the Spot 1 satellite and
system, and in 1984 he was made Director of the Earth Observation
and Reconnaissance Satellite Division, and head of the Spot-1
project, up to launch and operational orbit acceptance.
His next post at CNES began in 1986 when he was made
Vice-Director in charge of project activities and development
studies for CNES application programmes. These included: Earth
observation (Spot 2 to 4, Helios, polar platform and radar
observation preliminary project); telecommunications (Telecom 1C and
Telecom 2); direct television (TDF-1 and 2); navigation systems
(Locstar, Argos, Sarsat-Cospas, European addition to the GPS); and
the Silex laser inter-satellite link system. The joint CNES/CNRS
laboratory called LERTS also came under his leadership.
In April 1989 Michel Courtois was appointed Director of the
Hermes Programme and of manned spaceflight at CNES. One year later
he was appointed Director of the Hermes Programme at ESA, as the
Agency decided to set up a joint team with CNES, located in
Toulouse. His next post was in 1993 when he became Director of the
Toulouse Space Centre.
Michel Courtois’s last appointment at CNES was Deputy Director
General. In this role he co-presided the Ariane 502 qualification
commission after the failure of the first Ariane-5 flight and then
took over responsibility for launcher activity at CNES.
After 28 year’s service with CNES, in 1999 Michel Courtois left
to take a job in industry when he became Vice President and Chief
Technical Officer of Alcatel Space. He remained with Alcatel until
he began his appointment with ESA in May 2004.
Michel Courtois has been a member of a number of Boards of
Directors including the Intespace company, Collecte Localisation
Satellite (CLS), Spot Image SA and its Washington subsidiary Spot
Image Corporation, and Arianespace. He is also a founding member of
the Académie des Technologies.
He has received numerous awards for his contribution to space
activities. These include: three awards from the Association
Aéronautique et Astronautique de France (AAAF) in 1976, together
with the AAAF Prix des Jeunes; the Grand Prix de l’Académie
Nationale de l’Air et de l’Espace (ANAE) in 1987; Officier de
l’Ordre National du Mérite in 1991; the Prix de la Réussite awarded
to the Spot 1 team in 1998; and, the Prix 1998 d’Astronautique. In
2000 Michel Courtois was made an Officier de la Légion d’Honneur.
ESA’s Director of Technical and Quality Management is strongly
committed to a European space programme and believes, "That there
can be no ambitious space programme in Europe today unless it is
European."
When asked about his role as head of the ESTEC establishment
Michel Courtois said, "We need to optimise procedures and set up a
really efficient management to enhance effectiveness and
competitiveness. This requires a measure of drastic reappraisal,
careful choice of priorities and working together. The objective is
to have project and technology developments better harmonised
without increasing costs and delays."
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