Bilateral relations in the space sector

For more than 40 years, France has developed international cooperation not only within the European framework, through programmes implemented by the European Union (Galileo, Copernicus) and the European Space Agency, but also through bilateral partnerships that they established with the main spacefaring nations (the United States, Russia, Japan, China, and India). This cooperation focuses on priority areas specific to each partnership: technologically highly innovative missions with the United States, climate or oceanography scientific study missions with India or China, and research and technology with Japan and Russia.

Other specific partnerships are being developed with other countries that have developed their own space capabilities or which have expressed a desire to acquire them. France is implementing large-scale cooperation with Germany and Italy.

Intergovernmental or inter-agency agreements

Bilateral space cooperation is developed in the framework of intergovernmental agreements or inter-agency agreements. Regarding intergovernmental agreements, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs plays a central role in interministerial coordination during negotiation and ratification stages.

The implementation of these agreements falls to the CNES (French Space Agency), designated as the competent body responsible for the implementation of the institutional aspect. Institutional cooperation may also be accompanied by an industrial aspect (sale by a French manufacturer of space equipment). In such cases, if the intergovernmental agreement covers all cooperation with a partner, a clear distinction is made, within the agreement, between what is covered by the framework of institutional cooperation and what falls under the industrial aspect. The Foreign Ministry is also involved in monitoring and giving political impetus to the agreements’ implementation.

Bilateral space cooperation agreements signed by France focus on the development of space applications, a field that has enormous potential in the space activity chain.

France is sharing its expertise in how space technologies contribute to the fight against climate change, the prevention and reduction of natural risks, management of natural resources, regional planning and environmental protection, and also in the fields of seismology, meteorology, oceanography, tele-learning and telemedicine in the framework of its institutional cooperation with many other partners.

Among the other cooperation areas covered by these agreements is the training of space industry specialists, the organization of common events, and discussions on matters relating to international space law or earth sciences.

France’s key partners

The main spacefaring nations

• France has been cooperating with the United States for more than 40 years. This cooperation is developed in the framework of the intergovernmental agreement signed on 23 January 2007. Considering the variety of activities conducted by the two main US agencies that operate in the space sector (NASA and NOAA), Franco-US cooperation covers a wide spectrum of fields, including earth observation, earth and universe sciences and human spaceflights. In terms of altimetry and oceanography, the JASON programme, the result of Franco-US cooperation gradually expanded to include Europe (EUMETSAT), is a key reference in the area. The TOPEX-Poseidon satellite, launched in 1992, was followed by several JASON satellites, the latest, JASON 3, having been launched on 17 January 2016. The Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) programme, which provides radar altimetry data across a 120-km imaging swath, makes a new technological leap possible and highlights the level of excellence of French-US cooperation in this field. In planetary exploration, numerous French scientific instruments have been developed for NASA’s Mars Exploration missions, such as the ChemCam and SAM instruments for the Curiosity mission, for which the rover has been operational since 2012. France provided NASA with a seismometer for the American mission to Mars, InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport), launched in May 2018. France is also expected to contribute significantly to the SuperCam camera which will equip the rover for the 2020 Mars mission. Another cooperation project involves data collection and assistance in search and rescue, between the CNES and the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). It involves using operational data collection systems such as Argos and satellite-aided search and rescue systems such as Cospas-Sarsat.
• France and Japan share similar concerns in the space field, and focus on changing technologies, sustainable development, protecting the planet and deep space exploration. Bilateral discussions cover a number of fields: preparation for the future, exploration missions, research and technology for satellites and launch vehicles (including the reusable CALLISTO launch vehicle demonstrator with the German Aerospace Center/DLR), space law, debris, Earth observation (in particular for greenhouse gases), complex electronic components and optical communications. The two countries’ desire to cooperate became a reality in 2015 following annual global dialogue meetings on space.
• With India, France signed a new intergovernmental bilateral space cooperation agreement during the Franco-Indian summit of 30 September 2008. This cooperation revolves around two emblematic programmes: Megha-Tropiques to study tropical climatology, launched in 2011, and SARAL-Altika to measure the topography of ocean surfaces (launched in 2013). The Indian satellite Oceansat 3 will have the latest generation of the French environmental surveillance and localization instrument, Argos 4, on board starting in 2018. Other joint missions in the field of Earth observation are currently being explored.
• As part of their intergovernmental agreement on space cooperation signed in 1997, France and China decided to jointly develop two satellites: CFOSat, for the global observation of oceans, for which the CNES supplied one instrument and piece of equipment, with a launch date in 2018, and SVOM, a scientific and astrophysics mission including two instruments supplied by the CNES, and a launch date in 2021. The vitality of French-Chinese space cooperation enabled new avenues for cooperation to be identified, particularly on monitoring climate change and exploration.

Large-scale cooperation programmes

• France and Germany, who are the main contributors to the European Space Agency, have enhanced their bilateral relationship, particularly through the joint production of the MERLIN satellite to measure atmospheric methane, as part of climate-supportive action, and which was launched in 2021. They also share common projects on future launchers (development of a LO_X/methane reusable engine, Prometheus, and the CALLISTO reusable rocket stage demonstrator in cooperation with the Japanese space agency). Furthermore, at the last Franco-German Council of Ministers (CMFA) of 13 July 2017, France and Germany demonstrated a shared desire to work on the digitization of the economy with the Space 4.0 programme. Lastly, France and Germany wish to increase their positioning in the field of innovation, technology transfer and the creation of new markets. That is the aim of a Franco-German agency for disruptive innovation, one activity of which would be a Franco-German INNOSpace project under the responsibility of the CNES and the DLR.
• The intergovernmental space cooperation agreement signed by France and Italy on 6 February 2007 sets out the areas of cooperation under the European Space Agency (launch vehicles, Earth observation, space exploration), the European Union (Galileo/EGNOS programmes, Copernicus initiative) and at multilateral and bilateral levels. The emblematic programmes under this cooperation are Athena-Fidus, for dual-use broadband telecommunications, and the dual-use ORFEO Earth observation project.

Other partnerships

• Cooperation between France and Brazil in the space field takes place under the intergovernmental agreement signed on 27 November 1997. It mainly developed around telecommunications and Earth observation.
• France signed an intergovernmental space cooperation agreement with Algeria on 1 February 2006. It covers the fields of space applications, particularly in terms of contribution of space technologies to regional planning, environmental protection, the prevention and reduction of natural risks, training of space industry specialists and technological programmes.
• The intergovernmental space cooperation agreement signed during the visit of the President of the Republic to Kazakhstan (6 October 2009) places a focus on space applications (meteorology, telemedicine, natural resource management, regional planning, prevention and reduction of natural risks) and the training of space sector specialists.
• In addition, France and the Czech Republic signed an intergovernmental agreement in December 2014 to promote space cooperation activities at the institutional and industrial level.