France is one of the world’s leading space-faring nations and a central actor in Europe’s space ecosystem. In 1965, it became the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to place a satellite in orbit with its own launcher, using the Diamant rocket to launch Astérix. It hosts Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, whose near-equatorial location supports efficient access to a wide range of orbits and underpins European launch autonomy.
The Space Economy at a Glance 2026
France is also among the European Space Agency’s largest contributors and has strong capabilities across launch systems, satellite manufacturing, earth observation, telecommunications, space science and defence, with an active ecosystem of space startups. In June 2026, France ranked sixth globally in satellite ownership, with around 75% of active satellites commercially operated, and seventh for satellites launched since 2019. While recent orbital activity is mainly commercially led, France maintains a broad portfolio of government satellites for civil, security and military applications.
In constant EUR and USD million, base year 2015
Note: Budget estimates include national activities and contributions to the European Space Agency, Eumetsat and as well as estimated contributions to the European Union Space Programme.
Source: OECD analysis based on institutional sources.
In 2025, the French civilian government space budget amounted to USD 2 760.8 million (EUR 2 443.2 million), including national and multilateral activities, contributions to ESA and Eumetsat, as well as estimated contributions to the European Union (EU) Space Programme, which is mainly based on each country’s share of the EU’s aggregated gross national income (Figure 5.5). This is a slight increase compared with 2024 and pre-COVID-19 levels in real terms. Earth observation and launchers were the main budget posts in the ESA contributions, whereas the national programme focused on maintaining the strategic autonomy of France and Europe, and R&D promotion. Unveiled on 12 November 2025, the new National Space Strategy reaffirmed France’s key priorities: sovereignty, autonomous access to space, industrial competitiveness, defence, the environmental transition, and European cooperation. Earlier in June 2025, the decarbonisation roadmap for the French space sector set out formal objectives for reducing its carbon footprint.
IP5 patent families, by priority date and applicant's location, using fractional counts
Note: IP5 patent families correspond to patent families filed in at least two offices worldwide, including at least one of the Five IP largest offices (IP5, i.e. the European Patent Office, EPO; the Japan Patent Office, JPO; the Korean Intellectual Property Office, KIPO; The China National Intellectual Property Administration, CNIPA; and the US Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO). Patents related to space-related technologies have been identified by the EPO using the EPO-PATSTAT 2025b data (https://www.epo.org/patstat).
Source: OECD (2026[1]), STI Micro-data Lab: Intellectual Property Database, http://oe.cd/ipstats, June 2026.
France is currently reassessing its measurement of the space sector to better capture all relevant activities. The French space sector is both broad and high-tech, covering all industry segments from manufacturing to satellite data/signal exploitation. The country also includes several assemblers at the top of the space manufacturing value chain. The biggest industrial cluster can be found in the southwestern part of the country, with strong links to aeronautics. There is a growing number of space startups in France, assisted by two ESA business incubation centres and the Connect by CNES support programme. From 2026 onwards, the Guiana Space Centre will have a dedicated complex for private micro and mini launchers.
France accounted for 7.7% of global space-related patent applications in 2020-23, compared with 16.4% in 2010-13, as shown in Figure 5.6. Key areas include propulsion and space system control (14% and 10%, respectively, of global patent applications). France has a strong revealed technological advantage (RTA), meaning that its share in space-related patenting is equal to its share in overall patenting activities. France’s relative specialisation in space technology patenting has decreased since 2010-13.
Fractional counts
Note: Perimeter of documents based on filtered journal titles and All Science Journal Classification codes in the Scopus database.
Source: OECD calculations based on Scopus Custom Data, Elsevier, Version 1.2026, https://www.elsevier.com/products/scopus, April 2026.
In terms of space-related scientific production [hereafter ‘space literature’], France’s production in fractional counts has remained stable over time but is below the OECD average per 100 000 inhabitants (Figure 5.7). The share of papers that are internationally co-authored has increased since 2009 and is high, above 70%. When looking at citations, a common proxy for scientific excellence, 10.5% of France’s space literature was in the top-10 percentile for citations in 2024. This is below the OECD average of 12%. France’s normalised citation score, comparing citation patterns within specific scientific fields, was at or just below the world average in the All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) categories “earth and planetary sciences” and “physics and astronomy”.
Based on data in the OECD Development Assistance Committee Creditor Reporting System database, France is the world leader in space-related official development assistance, committing some 201 million constant US dollars over the 2010-23 period, (Figure 5.8). Commitments mainly targeted free satellite broadcasting in French-speaking countries (Canal France International) and air transportation (satellite data and signals for improved safety).
In constant USD million (base year=2023)
Source: Calculations based on OECD (2025[2])), “Creditor Reporting System (CRS)", OECD.stat (database), https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CRS1 (accessed July 2025).
References
[3] McDowell, J. (2026), Jonathan’s Space Report, https://www.planet4589.org/index.html (accessed on 23 June 2026).
[1] OECD (2026), STI Micro-data Lab: Intellectual Property Database, http://oe.cd/ipstats (accessed on June 2026).
[2] OECD (2025), Creditor Reporting System (CRS), database, https://data-explorer.oecd.rg.