Main Engine Cut Off

Elon Musk’s long-awaited IAC update is coming up next week. Interestingly, his session has a moderator. And that moderator is none other than Jean-Yves Le Gall.

Jean-Yves Le Gall is the President of the host of the IAC, the International Astronautical Federation. But he is also the President of CNES—the French space agency. And before joining CNES in 2013, he was the Chairman and CEO of Arianespace for 12 years.

Le Gall has historically been skeptical about reusability and its potential as an industry-shifting force. After nearly every SpaceX achievement, he was one of the skeptics moving the goal posts and downplaying whatever it was that SpaceX had just done.

This event is only getting more interesting.

(Update from Jeff Foust: “Le Gall also ‘moderated’ Musk’s talk last year. He introduced Musk and did little else.”)