Over the course of the next three years, France plans to spend more than 9 billion euros in the aerospace industry. These "large" expenditures are a component of the overall space policy that President Emmanuel Macron outlined in February of last year. This envelope contains the credits that have already been recorded for numerous people.
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Elisabeth Borne made the announcement on Sunday at the 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC), which is an event that brings together, up until Thursday, several thousand representatives of the global space community. Borne stated that France is planning to invest more than 9 billion euros in the space sector over the next three years.
Macron's space strategy
According to what she remembered, these "huge" expenditures are a component of the space plan that was outlined by President Emmanuel Macron in February of last year. The Prime Minister placed a special emphasis on the need of "the first strategy," which is "to retain our autonomous access to space with Europe." Elisabeth Borne argued that in order to accomplish this goal, "we need strong resources and cutting-edge research," and she went on to describe the goals for launchers (Ariane 6), industrial competitiveness, exploration, climate, and defense.
The budget of 9 billion euros takes into account the credits that have already been approved for the space component of the investment plan for France 2030 (1.5 billion euros), those of the trajectory of the programming law for research that was voted until 2030, the "massive" means for the CNES (National Center for Space Studies), as well as those of the military programming law 2019-2025. (5 billion euros).
Also included is the next contribution that France will make to the budget of the European Space Agency (ESA), which will be up for a vote at the ministerial conference that will take place in Paris in the month of November. It was made clear to Matignon that the particular budget allocations for France would be decided upon in this context. For the next three years, the European Space Agency (ESA) plans to ask its 22 member nations for a total of around 18 billion euros to support its many initiatives.
To put it into perspective, its budget had been raised to 14.4 billion euros in 2019, with France's "subscription" totaling to 2.66 billion euros. Jean-Marc Astorg, the director of strategy at CNES, told "Echos" that "the task of consultation is under progress, in particular with the scientific community." He continued by saying, "At CNES, we look at all the themes."
In addition, this 9 billion euro budget that France would provide for space exploration takes into account the country's expenditures made within the scope of international collaboration with organizations other than ESA, such as NASA.
Philippe Baptiste, the head of CNES, praised what he called a "genuine aspiration of the State for space which is manifested by this trajectory." According to what he shared with AFP, "It's an ambitious envelope, with about 25% greater investment compared to the previous three years."
This is highly encouraging news for the market, the business, and the research community. There are 60,000 positions in the industry that are for researchers. It is imperative that we do not forget about them, the director of strategy for his company said.
After giving a speech in front of thousands of participants, the Prime Minister traveled to meet with officials from CNES, the organization that was hosting the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), as well as French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.