Emmanuel Macron at the inauguration of the Space Command at Air Base 101 in Toulouse, Wednesday, November 12, 2025. GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO/AFP
After a long wait and repeated postponements due to ongoing government instability, French President Emmanuel Macron finally unveiled his new, comprehensive "space strategy" on Wednesday, November 12, in Toulouse, southern France. For the first time, he set a shared course for civilian and military stakeholders in this rapidly evolving sector for the next 15 years. If nothing is done, France risks falling dangerously behind.
"Space has become a battlefield (...), our era is one of the brutalization of this new domain," the president said during the presentation of this document, drafted by the French Secretariat General for Defense and National Security (SGDSN). "Today's war is already being waged in space and tomorrow's war will start in space. We must be ready; this will be a condition for the success of military operations on land, in the air, and at sea," he added.
To give substance to this doctrinal exercise, the unveiling of this new 2025-2040 strategy took place alongside the inauguration of brand-new premises for the French Space Command, which now counts around 300 staff members. The vast, 11,000-square-meter building is intended to serve as the "heart" of France's space sector. It is located on a site that became the country's first military base dedicated to space in July. The base is codenamed BA 101.
