Record participation in ESA’s Industry Space Days 2026

ESA hosted a record 3,100 visitors from Europe’s space industry for the two-day Industry Space Days (ISD) on 16–17 September 2026 at its ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands. As the largest ESA-focused business-to-business event, ISD has become a key date on the European space calendar. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher welcomed participants, and more than 100 presentations across three conference halls provided insights into ESA’s near- and long-term activities and procurement needs across all ESA programmes.

In the B2B zone, about 1,500 companies of all sizes, alongside investors and ESA representatives, held almost 10,000 prescheduled and additional informal meetings to discuss opportunities, collaboration, or simply explore possibilities face-to-face. About 240 exhibitors filled the Exhibition Hall, including startups in ESA’s Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Village, allowing Europe’s space industry from all ESA Member States, Cooperating States and Associate States to showcase capabilities and connect. The event featured panel discussions, workshops, social networking opportunities and ESA awards; a new Technology tent dedicated to European technologies let companies with completed ESA Technology projects pitch their engineering solutions, and ESA laboratories were open.

The ISD is organised by ESA’s SME section in ESA’s Directorate of Finance, Controlling and Operational Procurement to foster cooperation across the space sector. Jens Kauffmann, Head of ESA’s SME Section, said bringing together 3,100 participants and around 1,500 companies for many thousands of scheduled and ad-hoc meetings required a major team effort across ESA. He added that the record participation confirms strong demand from industry for direct access to ESA programmes, procurement information and new business partners, with the aim of creating practical opportunities for companies of all sizes—particularly small and medium-sized enterprises—to connect, collaborate and grow within Europe’s space ecosystem.

Many companies attending had been before and are suppliers to ESA, and this was the twelfth edition of the biennial event, intended to forge stronger business collaboration among space businesses in Europe and enable ESA to communicate in person with Europe’s industry. Christine Klein, ESA Director of Finance, Controlling and Operational Procurement, commented that ISD is an ideal platform to work together with Member States, industrial partners and wider stakeholders so they can support each other and build on capabilities. ESA directors Christine Klein and Dietmar Pilz were also part of the event.