London, 22 December 2023.- A delegation from the French Space Agency CNES visited Colorado and Texas last week to grow ties between French and American aerospace companies, reported Space News. The officials plan to establish virtual hubs in Denver and Houston for Connect by CNES, a government initiative to spur space-related innovation.
Government support for the NewSpace ecosystem is strong with the National investment plan France 2030 directing 1.5 billion euros towards investment in space technologies over five years. Connect by CNES was established in 2018 to provide startups with technical expertise, funding, software, incubators, accelerators and introductions to prime contractors and government space agencies.
To help French startups establish ties in the US a French delegation met in Denver on the 11th and 12th of December with representatives of Colorado companies, government agencies and academic institutions. Through international partnerships CNES seeks to improve the resiliency of its space sector.
“There is already a lot of collaboration between French and U.S. companies,” said Francois Alter, CNES deputy chief strategy officer. “We met companies that already have French suppliers, French partners or French customers. Some of them want to make more business in Europe.
Business France, which has seven offices in the United States aims to help US companies understand the French market and identify French and European market incentives. Connect by CNES’ Houston hub will be oriented toward human spaceflight and moon programs including Artemis. The Denver hub will focus on military space, cybersecurity, space medicine and educational exchanges.
