“It is an ambitious envelope”.
France is preparing to invest more than 9 billion euros in the space sector over the next three years.
A budget which includes many of the credits already voted, announced this Sunday Elisabeth Borne at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Paris.
"In total, France is preparing to invest more than 9 billion euros in the space sector over the next three years, for research and our space industry", declared the Prime Minister at the opening of the IAC, which until Thursday brings together several thousand representatives of the world space community.
“We need cutting-edge research”
These “major” investments are part of the space strategy defined by President Emmanuel Macron last February, she underlined.
"The first strategy is to keep our independent access to space with Europe" and for that "we need strong resources and cutting-edge research", pleaded Élisabeth Borne, detailing the ambitions for launchers (Ariane 6), industrial competitiveness, exploration, climate and defence.
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The envelope of 9 billion euros includes in detail the credits for the space component of the France 2030 investment plan (1.5 billion euros), those for the trajectory of the programming law for research voted until in 2030, but also the "massive" resources for the National Center for Space Studies as well as those of the military programming law.
Also included is the next French contribution to the budget of the European Space Agency (ESA), which will be voted on at the ministerial conference in November in Paris.
The exact budget of France will be determined on this occasion, according to Matignon.
A "real ambition"
The president of Cnes, Philippe Baptiste, hailed a "real ambition of the State for space which is materialized by this trajectory" quantified.
"It's an ambitious envelope, with almost 25% additional investment compared to the last three years," he told AFP.
The envelope given by the executive will "allow the entire space ecosystem to find the most effective way to commit credits by the end of the year", according to Jean-Marc Astorg, director of the strategy of the French space agency.