On 30 July 2025, the German government published its High-Tech Agenda Germany. Space travel is one of the most important strategic research areas.
Increasing competitiveness, value creation and sovereignty through research and technology, strengthening "Made in Germany" in technologies and innovations, and acquiring the ability to act in key fields of technology. These are the stated goals of the High-Tech Agenda Germany adopted by the CDU/CSU and SPD government cabinet on 30 July 2025. Alongside health research, security and defence research, marine, climate and sustainability research and the humanities and social sciences, air and space travel is one of five strategic research areas[KS1] in which further investment is to be made. At the same time, the agenda focuses on six key technologies that are essential for progress, including quantum, artificial intelligence (AI) and climate-neutral energy generation.
Below, we take a look at where space travel fits into the High-Tech Agenda Germany.
Setting the course for space: space travel as a central research area in the High-Tech Agenda Germany
A clear "course towards the future" is how the German Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space, Dorothee Bär, describes it in her foreword to the High-Tech Agenda, naming NewSpace as one of the key innovative economic areas. Space travel and use are currently experiencing a boom and represent a rapidly growing market. The High-Tech Agenda also recognises the strong "trend towards commercialisation" of space travel and its relevance for communication, national security and achieving climate targets. Alongside air travel, space travel is therefore one of the strategic research areas on the agenda for which technology-driven investment is to be made.
A look at the German government's technology-driven space projects: from Innovation hubs to space strategy
The High-Tech Agenda Germany lists a number of projects that are important for space travel. For example, the Space Innovation Hub is to be strengthened, bringing together providers and users of space technologies, such as start-ups, companies, industry and science as a joint point of contact to drive the implementation of research and development projects for both civil and military needs, from innovation to market maturity. Further hub structures are also to be developed and/or strengthened.
The CDU/CSU and SPD government elected in 2025 already announced its intention to develop a German space strategy in its coalition agreement. According to the High-Tech Agenda, this should focus on application orientation and commercialisation with the involvement of SMEs and start-ups. The following areas are to be of particular importance: Firstly, the government aims to focus on competitive procedures for the research, development and procurement of launch systems and services, small satellites, technologies for earth observation and satellite communication, and secondly on robotic systems for use in orbit and the exploration and research of planetary bodies.
The government also declared the strengthening of the European Space Agency (ESA) as a goal in the coalition agreement. In the High-Tech Agenda, it states that Germany's space strategy will expand Germany's involvement in the ESA and that it is committed to transforming it. Another announcement from the coalition agreement is repeated here with regard to the International Space Station (ISS): Germany's participation in an ISS successor solution. According to the High-Tech Agenda, Germany will actively participate in the use of the ISS until 2030 and seek possible successor solutions for the period after 2030. The ISS offers research conditions that cannot be achieved on Earth, making a successor solution for the future of research and development in space of immense importance.
The EU-funded Galileo navigation satellite and timing system was already classified as indispensable in the coalition agreement. It is therefore not surprising that the High-Tech Agenda states that the German government intends to promote the continuity and further development of operational satellite programmes in Europe, such as Galileo. One of the aims is to reduce development, application and operating costs by promoting common standards in Europe and worldwide. Another is to create efficient structures and a common framework for central infrastructures.
Investments in key technologies and space projects
The six key technologies mentioned above are closely interlinked with the five central research areas mentioned above. The High-Tech Agenda sees new opportunities in the technologies AI and robotics, quantum, Industry 4.0 and new drive technologies. The aim is to increase investment in key technologies and present flagship initiatives. This also has links to space, since, among other things, a research satellite for quantum communication is to be launched in Germany for the first time in 2025. The High-Tech Agenda also recognises the importance of space-based data and space-related AI by identifying the availability of large data sets in astrophysics as one of the many opportunities for the key technology AI.
Looking to the future? These are the levers envisaged by the High-Tech Agenda
Nine additional levers are intended to help achieve the goals and measures set out in the High-Tech Agenda:
- Lever 1: Accelerating knowledge and technology transfer between innovation actors
- Lever 2: Reducing small-scale funding bureaucracy and modernising the legal framework (including the adoption of a research data law and freedom of innovation law)
- Lever 3: Establishing new financing instruments for research and development and strengthening the attractiveness of venture capital investments
- Lever 4: Strengthening resilience in science and expanding research security, science communication and participation as cross-cutting tasks
- Lever 5: Tackling the shortage of skilled labour
- Lever 6: Expanding European and international research and development cooperation and focusing more strongly on the priorities of the High-Tech Agenda
- Lever 7: Securing the supply of critical raw materials and other materials and strengthening Germany's industrial base
- Lever 8: Strategic investment in research infrastructures
- Lever 9: Removing barriers to civil-military research cooperation and strengthening collaboration
Will this be a successful launch or go nowhere?
With the High-Tech Agenda Germany, the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition government is pursuing the space travel goals set out in its coalition agreement (see: Galactic ambitions:"space" in the coalition agreement). The agenda is intended to serve as a starting point for the legislative period. The government has announced that it will invite the states and relevant stakeholders, including players from industry, to a kick-off event this autumn. They will be involved in jointly defining the next steps, such as technology roadmaps. In addition, the government wants to further develop key technology portfolios. This is to be followed by an intensive dialogue in 2026.
The government wants this to be more than just words on paper, with plans to measure the concrete results through ‘360° monitoring’ and take stock of the prospects at a high-tech summit. Of course, everything is subject to the availability of budget funds and the financial constitutional responsibility of the government. The agenda holds out the prospect that the measures could be financed from the special fund for infrastructure and climate neutrality.
The High-Tech Agenda draws on projects from the coalition agreement and announces the next steps towards their implementation and the development of concrete measures within the framework of the roadmaps, so that the concrete results of the dialogues announced for this and next year remain to be seen. We will also keep an eye on further steps in our blog series "CMS Space Law".
