A dozen small, medium and midcap enterprises from Toulouse (France), led by the Aerospace Valley competitiveness cluster, came to Washington D.C. to attend Satellite 2018 from March 12 to 15.
Coming to D.C.: a Toulouse regional authorities’ dynamic to support exports
Aerospace Valley cluster, with the support of Toulouse regional authorities, set up an export accompanying mission to the United States of America for space member companies of the Aerospace Valley cluster. Therefore a group of a dozen companies attended Satellite 2018 in the framework of the cluster’s program to develop a New Space dynamic in the Toulouse region. It was decided to call this program NewSpace Factory in order to highlight the targeted market (especially the constellation market) and the way to approach it (services and products supply).
A strong collective dynamic
The collective set up for this trip brought together a dozen companies with complementary activities, illustrating the fact that the Toulouse region possesses all the space competencies from board to ground:
- Aerospace Valley, Toulouse: competitiveness cluster for Aeronautics, Space and Embedded systems;
- Callisto, Villefranche de Lauragais: cryogenic or ambiant temperature low noise amplifiers;
- Comat, Flourens: electric propulsion and wheels for small satellites;
- CS-SI, Toulouse: software for space applications and control center for satellites;
- DSI, Blagnac: thermal sensors;
- Elta, Toulouse: secure communications systems for board-ground link;
- Mecano-ID, Toulouse: composite radiofrequency and structural products;
- Nexeya, Toulouse: small satellites platforms;
- Syntony, Toulouse: satellite navigation constellation simulators;
- Trad, Labège : software and expertise in radiation.
A thorough program
Three major components have structured the activities of the collective:
- Representation in a 40 square meter shared stand in the event exhibition hall with demonstrations based on the use of an interactive communication tool showing that the entire value chain is covered by members of the Aerospace Valley cluster;
- Professional meetings, in groups or separately, with prime contractors, new actors and governmental agencies;
- Networking reception at the Embassy of France.
A first positive outcome
The collective stand welcomed a large number of traditional and new space actors’ representatives. In particular, the French delegation presented the full range of space competencies provided by Aerospace Valley’s small, medium and midcap enterprises.
The collective approach, as well as the prior preparation, led to many meetings with:
- traditional actors;
- institutional actors;
- new actors.
A networking reception at the Embassy of France’s Maison Française, held on March 14, gathered more than 120 attendees.
This trip allowed companies to better situate their products and expertise compared to their competitors, to measure the potential, but also the challenges of international exchanges and finally to establish contacts with different companies.
The post-Washington
Aerospace Valley proposes to extend this action in Washington D.C. with an active participation at Toulouse Space Show (from June 26 to 28, 2018), as well as collective trips, each time according to an ad hoc configuration, to:
- Bremen, Germany (International Astronautical Congress, from October 1 to 5, 2018);
- Logan, Utah (Small Satellite Conference from August 4 to 9, 2018);
- Mountain View, California (SmallSat Symposium from February 4 to 7, 2019).
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