Above our heads, a silent revolution is underway. The days when space was accessible only to the great powers - the United States, the USSR, then Russia, Europe and China - seem to be over. Since the end of the 2000s, a new model has been emerging: the new space. This term, popularised in the 2010s, refers to the profound transformation of the space sector driven by private players. Also known as "space 2.0", it embodies a new era that is more open, more competitive and resolutely market-oriented. "New space is a movement that has really taken off over the last twenty years, particularly with the creation of SpaceX in 2002," explains Captain Béatrice Hainaut, a researcher on space issues at the Strategic Research Institute of the École Militaire.
Unlike the space race of the Cold War, which was driven by states with essentially ideological or military objectives, this new model focuses on profitability, flexibility and reusability. Miniaturised satellites, retrievable launchers, accelerated industrial production: new space is redefining the rules of the game.
Access to space has also become much more democratic with the arrival of private players such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. Today, there are more than 1,000 space companies in the United States. In France, the ecosystem is emerging with innovative start-ups such as Latitude, HyPrSpace, Sirius Space Services, Opus Aerospace and MaiaSpace.
During the Cold War, space was an area of strategic domination for the superpowers. The collapse of the USSR in 1991 paved the way for a reorientation of space capabilities. "The United States saw space as an opportunity to extend its strategic dominance beyond the Cold War, by turning its technological lead into an economic advantage", says Béatrice Hainaut. The advent of the International Space Station (ISS) in 1998 marked a geopolitical turning point, favouring international cooperation over rivalry.
A strategic economic driver
The space sector has gradually become a strategic economic driver. Freed from the threat of an ideological rival, the United States has reoriented its approach to space to turn it into a resource serving its economic interests. Key decisions taken under the Bill Clinton administration, such as the liberalisation of high-resolution commercial satellites in 1994 and the availability of GPS in 1996, paved the way for private competition in space, transforming this sector into a domain accessible to private players.
"This phenomenon began at the end of the Cold War, with the desire to transform a technological heritage with a military vocation, deeply linked to nuclear deterrence, into a commercial and economic lever", explains Béatrice Hainaut. New space marks a turning point in which the conquest of space is no longer the exclusive preserve of major government agencies, but has become a key sector driven by private initiative and contemporary geopolitical issues.
Reconciling national sovereignty and private dynamics
Faced with these upheavals, France is conducting a strategic review of its future in space. Prime Minister François Bayrou has entrusted the General Secretariat for National Defence and Security (SGDSN) with the task of drawing up a national space strategy, due to be completed in June 2025. The strategy is designed to meet the challenges of resilience and security in an increasingly unstable international environment. "Space is both an essential field of scientific investigation and a key strategic environment. It has a direct impact on our security and defence, while offering major economic and industrial opportunities, explains the Prime Minister.
France is at a crossroads: reconciling sovereignty with recourse to the private sector. A report by2021 National Assembly suggests a three-circle model for structuring military space strategy, a model that can also be applied to the civilian sector. He distinguishes three levels of sovereignty:
- The sovereign heart Strategic capabilities, such as communications and observation satellites, are fully controlled by the State, guaranteeing their availability in all circumstances.
- The extended heart This level covers capabilities provided by trusted partners, whether private companies or international cooperation organisations.
- Capacity complement The latter circle includes civilian services and strategic partnerships, which are used in times of crisis without guaranteeing permanent access.
This balance aims to preserve sovereignty while taking advantage of the opportunities offered by private companies. Whether we are talking about SpaceX or other players in the new space sector, none of these companies would have been able to emerge without massive support from the public authorities. As Béatrice Hainaut points out, "the France 2030 plan is a good illustration of this logic, with significant public investment in French space start-ups".
This delegation to the private sector, while encouraging rapid growth, is not without its risks. "In the United States, certain skills could be lost within NASA or other agencies", explains the researcher, and winning them back could prove difficult.
The State must therefore clearly define the areas in which it is willing to depend on private players, and those in which it wishes to retain sovereign control. The forthcoming national space strategy could well mark out new directions in this direction.
An unregulated space where "geopolitical tensions on land are projected".
Space law, which is still in its infancy, is struggling to provide a framework for the accelerating pace of human activity in the Earth's orbit. Visit 1967 Space TreatyThe Convention on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the legal basis for space governance, establishes the founding principles of freedom of access, non-appropriation of celestial bodies and peaceful use. It prohibits the installation of nuclear weapons in space and proclaims that space activities must benefit all humankind.
But this treaty, adopted in a context of bipolar rivalry, is now showing its limitations in the face of the challenges of the new space. According to Béatrice Hainaut, "Practitioners generally feel that this treaty is too liberal, or even incomplete. According to some legal experts, it is up to case law to make up for its shortcomings".
In the absence of binding agreements, governments are now relying on standards of behaviour to govern their actions in space. As Béatrice Hainaut points out, "Some States are relying on standards of responsible behaviour - a form of soft law ". She adds that "these standards are sometimes perceived or judged to be too subjective, in particular by Russia and China, which prefer to strengthen the binding framework - in other words, to make them more binding. hard law- rather than adopting codes of conduct.
The emergence of new space makes these limitations particularly worrying. The proliferation of private players and the growing congestion of orbits are increasing the risk of incidents, with no international authority providing any real regulation. Against this backdrop, Béatrice Hainaut sums up: "geopolitical tensions on Earth are now being projected into space, making cooperation more difficult.
The emerging countries, for their part, are calling for a fairer and more inclusive framework. They are calling for the introduction of responsible standards of behaviour, in the hope of guaranteeing fair access to orbital resources and limiting the risk of future conflicts. But without a common will on the part of the major powers, space governance remains suspended in a precarious equilibrium.
Europe's dual challenge: sovereignty and competitiveness in space
Europe faces a twofold challenge: maintaining its competitiveness in the space sector while meeting its sovereignty needs. Although Europe has considerable assets - with high-performance companies such as ArianeGroup for launchers and Airbus Defence and Space for satellites - it is struggling to compete with the United States. According to Béatrice Hainaut, the US "has the advantage of being able to rely on a dynamic domestic market, with sufficient needs to support the competitiveness of its space players".
The European launcher sector is undergoing major change, with the parallel development of micro-launchers and new initiatives such as Ariane 6. In this context, projects such as IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) represent a major opportunity for Europe. Launched in May 2023, this project aims to provide a new secure and resilient communications infrastructure, primarily for European governments and businesses. The consortium formed to develop this satellite constellation includes major players in the sector such as Airbus, Eutelsat and Thales Alenia Space. The aim is to have an operational network in place by 2027.
The IRIS² project could mark a turning point in European space sovereignty, enabling Europe to reduce its dependence on the United States and control its strategic communications infrastructures.
"It is crucial for Europe to maintain its leadership in the space sector, for the sake of its autonomy and sovereignty"., underlines Philippe BaptisteChairman of the Centre national d'études spatiales. Innovation and investment in this sector will be decisive levers in guaranteeing a European future in a space that has become a major geopolitical challenge.
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