NATO Space Centre of Excellence

NATO Space Centre of Excellence is a NATO-accredited centre based in Toulouse, France. It gives space expertise to NATO and its allies. It is the 30th NATO-accredited Centre of Excellence. Its stated aim is to help improve and change how space power is understood and used.

Space became NATO's 5th operational domain in 2019. Fifteen sponsoring nations signed the centre's memorandum of understanding in January 2023. Accreditation was announced on 14 July 2023 at the NATO Summit in Vilnius. A new permanent site in Toulouse was opened on 19 January 2026, and the centre declared full operational capability at that point. Colonel Patrick Heim of France took over as director on 10 August 2026.

The centre works along four pillars. These are concept development and experimentation, doctrine and standardization, education and training, and analysis and lessons learned. Across these pillars it covers three operational space functions. They are space domain awareness, operational space support and space domain coordination.

The site says the centre provides knowledge, analysis and products. It also shares space expertise and acts as a bridge between NATO and space bodies from defence, civil, industry, academia and research. The director names work such as adding space to multi-domain operations, refining doctrine and supporting joint allied exercises.

Recent news on the site covers the IISS Prague Defence Summit, the Space Defense and Security Summit and the Paris Space Summit, all in September 2026. The website has a contact form with separate buttons for media and partnership requests. It also has a page about working with the centre.