Established as last year, NATO’s Space Centre of Excellence in Toulouse, France, is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of the Alliance’s space capabilities. With a mandate to enhance NATO’s understanding of the space domain and leverage insights from the commercial sector and academia, the Centre is at the forefront of accelerating space-related initiatives.
Consistent with NATO’s Approach to Space, the Space Centre of Excellence is dedicated to deepening and expanding the Alliance’s use of the space domain. The Centre plays a pivotal role in integrating space into NATO’s core activities, missions, and operations, ensuring that the Alliance can fully harness the benefits of space across all domains.
Positioned within a dynamic geographical area for space-related activities, the Centre is surrounded by space companies and academia. The Space Centre of Excellence serves as a focal point for space education and training, analysis, and lessons learned, concept development and experimentation, as well as doctrine development and standardization. By elevating space awareness across the Alliance and fostering interoperability of space-related assets, the Centre bridges the gap between NATO and national, international, and commercial space organizations, including academia.
Now in its ramp-up phase, the Space Centre of Excellence is already demonstrating its value through its work across four key pillars.
The first pillar, focused on concept development and experimentation, actively monitors space trends, capabilities, and concepts with potential benefits for NATO and its partners.
The second pillar, dedicated to doctrine and standardization, is responsible for developing the doctrinal framework for space operations. Notably, the Centre assumed custodianship of the NATO Space Operations doctrine in April 2024.
The third pillar centres on education and training, with a focus on developing individual and collective training solutions to ensure the Alliance possesses well-educated and trained space professionals. The Centre’s leadership of the Annual Space Discipline Conference in May 2024 underscores its commitment to fostering a skilled space workforce. Additionally, the Space Centre of Excellence is actively supporting major NATO exercises, including Loyal Leda 2024, Steadfast Deterrence, and Steadfast Duel.
The fourth pillar, dedicated to analysis and lessons learned, aims to optimize the Centre’s overall efforts through data analysis and knowledge sharing. As the Space Centre of Excellence continues to grow, this pillar will play an increasingly critical role in informing the Alliance’s space strategy.
To enhance collaboration within the space community, the Centre participated in the 39th Annual Space Symposium and hosted a booth at the first NATO Space Symposium. In 2025, the Centre will organize its inaugural Space Conference in Toulouse, bringing together senior experts from the military, industry, and academia to address global space challenges facing NATO.
The NATO Space Centre of Excellence is poised to become a leading authority on space power, providing invaluable support to the Alliance as it navigates the complexities of the space domain.