[RN7]

Once the nukes start landing I think we can forget about the US and Soviets having a satellite launching capacity. Some infrastructure and capability to launch something into orbit may survive, but not the resources to design, manufacture and test satellites.

France on the other hand might. It would depend on if you believe France was targeted by Soviet nuclear weapons in T2K or not. I don't think France was and if it was it was a limited nuclear strike on French oil refineries. The French completely withdrew from the Atlantic Alliance (they withdrew from NATO in 1966) once NATO crossed into East Germany in December 1996. Unlike Japan the French offered no support to the US or NATO before the war went nuclear in any capacity. Their actions after the nuclear strikes do not follow that of a country wounded by the Soviets. No cooperation with NATO in Europe, in fact they invade two NATO countries (Germany and the Netherlands), they carve out a new power-bloc with Belgium in Africa, they send a fully functional and well equipped military expeditionary force to the Middle East in direct rivalry to CENTCOM and the RDF, and they support French separatists in Canada.

Their main launching site is in Kourou in French Guyana which is in South America. Latin America wasn't nuked in T2K and if Kourou was nuked why did did the Soviets miss the Panama Canal? The French had another launch site in Hamaguir Algeria until the early 70's. Main French satellite tracking stations at Aussaguel and Bretigny-sur-Orge (France), Kourou (Fr. Guyana),
Kerguelen Island (southern Indian Ocean), Kiruna (Sweden) and Hartebeestehoek (South Africa) but they also used stations all over the place in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Japan, Kenya, Norway Portugal, Spain and the US.