On 14 September 2016, the cooperation agreement on the design, construction and operational phases of the French-German Climate Satellite MERLIN in Berlin was signed (from left to right: Thierry Mandon, French Minister of State for Higher Education and Research, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall, Gerd Gruppe, DLR Executive Board Member responsible for the DLR Space Administration, and Brigitte Zypries, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy).