Training courses
One of the priorities of the defense space strategy is to generate the expertise needed by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, attracting talent and offering them tailor-made training.
The French Space Command draws up employment doctrines for the training courses in its area of expertise. It ensures the preparation and operational readiness of forces, coordinates outsourced professional training, and carries out training for its own staff and for other organizations.
Space Basic Course
The aim of the Space Basic Course is to provide the first building blocks of knowledge of the space environment and its use by the armed forces, enabling French Space Command (CDE) and Ministry of the Armed Forces (MINARM) personnel to acculturate to the defense space domain and adapt to their new working environment.
The course content consists of a series of introductions to the various components of the space industry, divided into three modules:
- Presentation of the CDE: its challenges and ambitions;
- State of the art of the industrial and government space ecosystem;
- Visits to industrial partners.
Space Advanced Course
The aim of the Space Advanced Course is to enrich the trainee's space culture with a first level of training in space technologies and their use by the armed forces. This course has been created to meet the knowledge and skills needs of personnel working in or for the space industry, by providing an overview of the defense space sector and an understanding of the synergy between the various players in this sector. As such, it is aimed at any category within or outside the Ministry wishing to benefit from a first building block in skills enhancement in the space sector.
The content of the course is a set of systemic introductions to the various constituent parts of the space industry, broken down into six different blocks designed to cover a broad spectrum of basic knowledge on the technical, capability, strategic and operational dimensions, as well as the issues at stake:
- Defense space strategy;
- State of the art of the industrial and state space ecosystem and the New Space;
- Innovations and prospects;
- Space environment, space mechanics and space systems;
- Space Situational Awarness / Space Domain Awarness;
- Support for operations;
- Cyber defense issues.
Space Military Overview Course
The Space Military Overview Course is based on the Space Advanced Course, with particular emphasis on international space cooperation. As such, the audience is made up of representatives of partner and allied armed forces, and the lectures are given entirely in English.
This course meets three objectives:
- A common understanding of the defense space sector.
- An overview of space fundamentals.
- The development and strengthening of ties within the international space community.
Three main themes will be explored:
- Geopolitics.
- Space technologies.
- The military use of space.
Related contents
The Space Military Overview Course is back for a third edition!
From April 14 to 18, 2025, the French Space Command's Training Centre for Military Space Operations (CFOSM) organized the third edition of the Space Military Overview Course (SMOC) at the Diagora Labège convention center in Toulouse.
April 23, 2025

AsterX 2025 : 5th edition of the exercise comes to an end
AsterX 2025: the 5th edition of the French military space exercise was held at the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in Toulouse from March 17 to 28, 2025.
April 01, 2025
AsterX 2025: defending space together
From March 17 to 28, the fifth edition of the French military space exercise AsterX will be held. Organized by the French Space Command (CDE), the event will bring together 170 French and foreign civilian and military participants at the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in Toulouse.
March 17, 2025