Dear Balloon and Rockets community, dear participant, dear speaker, dear accompanying person, dear exhibitor, dear all,

I am glad to add some closing words on behalf of the French delegation.

I believe that you will agree with me if I say that we have had a nice and fruitful symposium in this beautiful town of Biarritz.

It was so good to meet you all again after all these years, share these moments in person and discuss face to face about our activities and projects.

As you know, this time organizing the ESAPAC Symposium was not a piece of cake ! We have had first to face two long years of Covid and lately we were also confronted to the sensitive geopolitical situation in East Europe. However, after one year of postponing and delays, we did it ! we had our symposium, and it has been a big success ! 

That this symposium was a success, we can see from some statistics:

284 persons participated, including 70 students, even very young students from Belgium !

19 different nationalities were represented, Germany was in majority, but also people from the ESAPAC member states and many other places in Europe.  In particular, the important and growing attendance of Polish participants and students needs to be noticed for their interest for sounding rockets. Although we regretted that some colleagues from Japan, Canada, Russia and Brazil could not be with us, the USA was well represented.

Regarding the programme, 170 presentations were made, and a poster session was organized.

I would like to address again many thanks to the organizing and programme committees and to all the people that contributed to achieving this challenge ! The success of this symposium was based on their commitment to a significant extend !

I am looking forward to meeting you again in two years in Switzerland.

Vincent Dubourg
On behalf of the French delegation to the Esrange and Andøya Special Project.