§§§ Laboratoire de Combustion et Systemes Reactifs (LCSR), CNRS, Orleans, France This paper presents an overview of current activities in the field of pulse detonation as well as rotating detonation wave rocket engines in France. The Launch Vehicle Directorate of the French space agency CNES is actively pursuing some of these activities and tries to play a coordinating role on a national scale. The emphasis of this paper is on rocket based detonation engines. In our view, air-breathing detonation engines (PDE's) do currently not present an interest for space applications. The fundamental interest for space applications is the potential to obtain either a rocket engine with a very simple mechanical design, which should lead to a robust system, or a higher rocket engine performance due to the more efficient underlying thermodynamic cycle process. The current PDRE activities in ONERA, MBDA, Roxel and the CNRS laboratories LCD in Poitiers and LCSR Orleans are briefly presented. First successful test results of a current research project on rotating detonation wave rocket engines, carried out at the CNRS Laboratoire de Combustion et de Detonique (LCD) in Poitiers are presented with some initial measurements.
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