  I elaborate on a link between the string--scale breaking of supersymmetry
that occurs in a class of superstring models and the onset of inflation. The
link rests on spatially flat cosmologies supported by a scalar field driven by
an exponential potential. If, as in String Theory, this potential is steep
enough, under some assumptions that are spelled out in the text the scalar can
only climb up as it emerges from an initial singularity. In the presence of
another mild exponential, slow--roll inflation is thus injected during the
ensuing descent and definite imprints are left in the CMB power spectrum: the
quadrupole is systematically reduced and, depending on the choice of two
parameters, an oscillatory behavior can also emerge for low multipoles l < 50,
in qualitative agreement with WMAP9 and PLANCK data. The experimentally favored
value of the spectral index, n_s ~ 0.96, points to a potentially important role
for the NS fivebrane, which is unstable in this class of models, in the Early
Universe.
