法国保卫共和联盟主席雅克·希拉克1月份两次公开声称,要修正1992年欧空局部长会议确定的放弃赫尔墨斯载人航天飞机计划的决定。 1月22日,在图卢兹附近的卡斯代尔吉耐举行的一次公众集会上,希拉克对放弃赫尔墨斯计划表示遗憾。他说:“空间活动的减弱影响了我们明天的社会,因此,不能放弃赫尔墨斯航天飞机计划。”希拉克肯定他会“尽全力使计划按期进行”。早在1月5日,希拉克在给法国环境联合会主席保罗·马尔什利的 Jacques Chirac, chairman of the French Union for the Defense of the Republic, publicly stated twice in January that it was necessary to amend the decision of the 1992 ESA Ministerial Meeting to abandon the Hermes manned space shuttle program. On January 22, at a public rally held in Kasardi, near Toulouse, Chirac regretted the plan to renounce the Hercene. He said: “The weakening of space activities has affected our society tomorrow, so we can not give up the Hermes space shuttle program.” Chirac assured him that he would “make every effort to keep the program on schedule.” As early as January 5, Chirac was giving Paul Marchelli, chairman of the French Environmental Federation