CNES playing cards

CNES is France’s equivalent of NASA. The initials stand for Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (National Centre for Space Studies). This set is crammed full of colour photos (up to 6 per card) of rockets, satellites, space and research centres, launches, views from space and so on. The CNES logo appears twice on every card face and 24 times on the back. The very extensive booklet has a huge amount of information (in French), with two pages devoted to each card. As developments in this field take place extremely often and rapidly, this pack may constitute an interesting snapshot of where space exploration had reached in 1995. The design on the back of the box is the same as on the cover of the booklet. See the booklet►

Above: playing cards made by Heron, S.A., Mérignac, for CNES, Paris and Toulouse, France, 1995. © CNES 1995.

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