Leaders gather for the family photograph at the International Space Summit, Paris, 10 September 2026. Credit: © European Union, 2026, licensed under CC BY 4.0, cropped The first International Space Summit closed at the Grand Palais in Paris on Thursday with about €20bn in announced investment and 51 deals signed, after two days in which European governments tried to convert a long-running argument about dependence on American launch providers into contracts. Euronews, which covered both days from the venue, reported the headline figures alongside the leaders’ addresses. The French foreign ministry had billed the event as the first gathering on space governance held at head-of-state level, co-hosted with Germany and drawing delegations from roughly 120 countries.
Emmanuel Macron used his address to argue for rules rather than a race. “Outer space remains the only major global commons that is not subject to regulations that match the stakes,” he said, calling shared governance necessary to manage debris, spectrum and traffic in orbit. The President said he wanted to see the Nyx cargo capsule dock with the International Space Station within two years, the Argonaut lunar lander reach the Moon’s surface within five, and a European crewed capsule lift off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana within 10. The European Space Agency signed a €760mn contract with The Exploration Company under its ALADDIN programme, covering a demonstration flight of the Nyx capsule worth €310mn plus €450mn in options for two further missions. The Franco-German startup, which raised $450mn in June to develop its Storm engine, lost a Nyx prototype on reentry last year.
Ursula von der Leyen made the security case. “The ability to access and act in space not only underpins our prosperity, it increasingly determines our security,” the Commission president told delegates, pointing to satellite communications and imagery in active conflicts. She confirmed that the bloc decided last month to expand its IRIS² constellation to more than 350 satellites and accelerate deployment, a change the Commission announced on 7 August. The summit’s most-discussed guests were the ones who did not come. SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space and Starcloud all withdrew after the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy advised American firms in late August against attending, as we reported last week.
Several of the same companies are expected in Paris next week for World Space Business Week. German chancellor Friedrich Merz was also absent. Isar Aerospace reached orbit on 5 September, the first European commercial launcher to do so, four days before the summit opened. Greece used the Paris stage to confirm Dr Adrianos Golemis as its first astronaut, on a Vast mission in 2027, and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet was named commander of that flight, making him the first non-American to command a US spacecraft.
The €20bn announced in Paris sits on top of a budget European ministers had already agreed. ESA member states approved €22.3bn for the 2026 to 2028 cycle last November. A further figure of roughly €35bn for space security and defence, up about 31 percent on the previous period, circulated at the summit, though it covers European spending beyond ESA’s own budget and we have not matched it to a single published line. Much of what was signed at the Grand Palais draws on those envelopes rather than adding to them.
ESA director general Josef Aschbacher framed satellites as civilian critical infrastructure rather than defence assets alone, and pressed the case for European crewed capability. Sophie Adenot joined a session by live link from the ISS. What the summit did not produce was a governance instrument. There is no treaty text, no binding declaration on orbital traffic, and no agreement with Washington on the EU Space Act, the regulation proposed in June 2025 that would require any operator serving EU users to obtain authorisation and appoint a legal representative in the bloc.
The fight France and Germany are pursuing at the International Telecommunication Union over mobile-satellite spectrum also remains open. ESA’s next ministerial checkpoint is an intermediate meeting in Rome in December, with the full council at ministerial level due in 2028.
