I was reading about France first satellite [1] in 1965 (third country to launch a satellite with its own rocket). I'm not sure how much help they got but doing

I was reading about France first satellite [1] in 1965 (third country to launch a satellite with its own rocket). I'm not sure how much help they got but doing it all in about 2 decades is quite impressive for a small country. Especially since at that time I guess there were not much recruitment of foreign experts, even within the EU. So they were on their own. I'm just not sure how much help they got from the US or how many Nazi they could grab at the end of the war. Now in the 21st century, the fact that Arianespace and the entire EU can't really figure out in two decades how to half the cost of it's launcher is worrisome. Clearly those organisations, ability to coordinate or culture have dangerously deteriorated. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ast%C3%A9rix_(satellite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ast%C3%A9rix_(satellite)