Jean-Jacques Dordain [SEP] position held
Jean-Jacques Dordain
Jean-Jacques Dordain (born 14 April 1946) was Director General of the European Space Agency between 2003 and 2015.
Graduating at École Centrale Paris in 1968, Dordain began his scientific career in the French Aerospace Research Agency (ONERA) and later worked as a professor at the National Higher School of Aeronautics and Aerospace in the 1970s and 1980s. He has conducted extensive research in rocket engines and microgravity experiments. He was also a European astronaut candidate. 
In 1998 he was Executive Secretary at
, under the current Russian proposal Europe would not share control over the design of the program and would be limited to being a small industrial contributor.
Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's Director General, put the refusal to fund the study into context: "It is not a question of member states for and member states against. I think the decision could not be taken for reasons that are not linked to Clipper itself. The decision could not be taken because of budgetary restraints." Dordain concluded that he was convinced