The decentralization of the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) in Toulouse in 1963 proceeds from a double political movement: on the one hand, the institution of a French innovating research sector in the space field, on the other hand, the regional development initiated under the French Fourth Republic and carried on under the French Fifth Republic. This article is based on the concept of “civic grandeur”, forged by Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thévenot to indicate a higher principle of public weal capable of federating the national collective. From this point of view, the creation of the CNES is justified in the name of the grandeur of France and its essential autonomy in a bipolarized geopolitical context. The transfer of the CNES in Toulouse represents for the city a way of conquering grandeur in the space field, an asset that will help develop local economy and will come eventually to define it. When the decentralization of the CNES is implemented, the rhetoric of the grandeur disappears. From then on, the creation of the DATAR and the strengthening of the policy of regional planning give political legitimacy to the transfer of the CNES.