The annual NextSpace symposium by Way4Space returns on October 9–10, 2025, at La Cité du Vin in Bordeaux.

This high-level gathering will bring together French, European, and international leaders and experts for two days of reflection and foresight on the major challenges shaping the space sector.

The 2025 edition will focus on a strategic topic at the heart of current innovations:

“Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO): Challenges of the New Low Frontier of Space.”

Very Low Earth Orbits: a new domain of space utilization

Located below 300 km altitude, very low and ultra-low Earth orbits (VLEO/ULEO) represent a new field of space innovation. While offering major technological, scientific, and industrial opportunities, they also raise critical legal, geopolitical, ethical, and environmental challenges.

These very low orbits also hold considerable potential for high-impact societal applications: accurate Earth observation, improved communications, rapid hazard detection, and emergency response in natural disasters. They could thus become powerful tools for public authorities, enabling anticipation, faster decision-making, and better territorial management in the face of climate and environmental challenges.

Two days to share expertise and perspectives

At once a field for scientific and technological cooperation and a strategic domain reshaping global power balances, VLEO raises questions about physical limits, international standards, and emerging uses.

It is in this context that the 5th edition of NextSpace will bring together researchers, industry leaders, and policymakers to explore both the potential and the limits of these still largely uncharted altitudes.

PRESS RELEASE – 1st September 2025

Alongside keynote speeches and pitches of innovative projects, the event will feature four main panel discussions:

• Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO): addressing an emerging need
• Strategies of space powers in VLEO
• VLEO as a new market opportunity
• VLEO: foresight and risk management

For this new edition, Way4Space is introducing fireside chats, informal yet insightful conversations. Three working groups will gather around major VLEO issues: Security & Defense, European Dynamics, and Technological & Industrial Challenges. This engaging format will foster collective reflection, idea sharing, and debate to enrich the work of the Way4Space think tank.