Why France – and why Toulouse?
France is Europe’s leading space nation, with the largest public space budget on the continent (around €3 billion annually) and accounting for roughly half of Europe’s space industry turnover. At the heart of this ecosystem is Toulouse – widely recognised as Europe’s space capital.
Toulouse brings together the full value chain in one place: from R&D and manufacturing to satellite integration, operations and data services. The region hosts around 16,000 space jobs and major players such as CNES, Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space, alongside a fast-growing NewSpace ecosystem of startups and scale-ups.
France and Norway are also strengthening their cooperation in this domain. In June 2025, Emmanuel Macron and Jonas Gahr Støre signed a strategic partnership identifying space as a key area for collaboration. This momentum was reinforced on 24 March 2026, when Ministers Cecilie Myrseth and Sébastien Martin signed a renewed letter of intent, once again highlighting space as a priority sector for bilateral cooperation.
For Norwegian companies, this is a unique opportunity to engage directly with one of Europe’s most dynamic and strategic space markets.
Whether you are active in materials, components, subsystems, software, data or applications, Toulouse offers direct access to customers, partners and programmes across the entire value chain. The ecosystem is highly collaborative, with strong links between industry, research and public stakeholders, and growing demand driven by both commercial and sovereign space initiatives.
This mission provides a gateway into the European space industry – offering relevant meetings, market insight and concrete opportunities for partnerships, business development and scaling.
8 June - French-Norwegian Forum on Space & Dual Use cooperation
Venue: La Cité - 55 Avenue Louis Breguet, 31400 Toulouse
13.30 - Registration and welcome coffee
- Thierry Cotelle, Vice-president of the Occitanie region, in charge of the Economy, Employment, Innovation and Reindustrialization commissions
- H.E. Vegar Brynildsen, Norwegian Ambassador to France
14.20 – Keynote speech by NATO Space Center of Excellence
- Colonel Sylvain Debarre, Director and Michele Jamrozik, Strategy and Technology Advisor
14.40 - Presentations of the local Space & Dual Use ecosystems and ambitions
- “Defense and dual industry in Occitanie” - AD’OCC, Jean-Marc Dessapt, International director
- Aerospace Valley - Dominique Cachenaut, Deputy Director, Space Division
- Club Galaxie - Jean-Claude Traineau, Secrétaire Général
- Thales Alenia Space – Vincent Clot, Space Business Catalyst Director
- Mercator Ocean – Victoria Persson, Coordinator of DTO application projects
15.40– 16.10 Coffee break
16.10 Presentation of the S3SAW project - An ambitious French-Norwegian project for critical subsea infrastructure protection
- Olivier Balet, Scientific Director – Sopra Steria
16.20 - Presentation of the Norwegian Space sector
- Norwegian Space Cluster - Robin Løvslett, Cluster Manager
16.30 – Panel discussion on opportunities for cooperation on space: industrial, R&D, EU fundings…
Moderator: Robin Løvslett, Deputy Managing Director, Norwegian Space Cluster
- Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace - Arne Gjennestad, VP Business Development, Defence Space & Surveillance
- ONERA - Laurent Castanet, Project Officer for Propagation and Radio Communications in the Electromagnetics and Radar Department
- Aerospace Valley - Fabienne Daveran, Project Officer for Europe
17.00 - Pitch session from the Norwegian delegation
- Lilaas AS
- SpacePort Norway AS
- Salia AS
- SpaceLab AS
- Widenorth AS
- PaleBlue AS
- SINTEF
- UiO
- eOdyn & SIMULA
- Jean-Marc Dessapt, International Director AD’OCC / Frédéric Honnorat , Consul of Norway in Toulouse
19.30 – Networking cocktail (Consular Palace - 2 Rue d'Alsace Lorraine, 31000 Toulouse)
9 June - Industrial Visits
7.00 - Meeting at Place du Capitole (in front of the Plaza Hotel, 7 Pl. du Capitole, 31000 Toulouse) - Transportation departs at 7.25
8.00-12.00 – Visit of Airbus Defence & Space
08:00 Formalities at Astrolabe
08:20 - 08:40 Welcome coffee & split into 2 groups
08:40 - 09:30 Group 1 visit Astrolabe / Group 2 Airbus Space Systems presentation
- Introduction to Airbus Group & Space Systems within Airbus Defence and Space
- The value chain
- Overview of latest achievements
- Overview of our multi orbit space capabilities in Earth observation, Telecommunications, Navigation, Science and Exploration
- Focus on the Earth observation portfolio: high-level product overview and examples of imagery capabilities
09:40 - 10:30 Group 2 visit Astrolabe / Group 1 Airbus Space Systems presentation
- Transfer to Airbus Geo 15 min
11:45 - 11:00 Entrance on Geo site
11:00 - 12:00 Airbus Connected Intelligence presentation
- Space Digital Presentation
- Airbus ‘s Earth Observation Constellation
- Our multiple Markets
- Some use-cases
- Tasking offer
12.00 Transfer from Airbus to Look Up Space
12.15 – Lunch & Visit LookUp Space
13.30 – Visit of CNES (National Centre for Space Studies)
17.00 – End of the programme - Shuttle back to Capitole Plaza
