The European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, announced on Tuesday 12 January his desire to give the European Union an “offensive” strategy in the field of space launchers in order to face competition via a “European Alliance”.
“Yes, we have fantastic EU launchers, competitive on the global stage. But the standards for launchers are currently being redefined outside of Europe. We all know that!”, he lamented in a speech at the European Space Conference, pointing to the European approach.
“Will our current approach successfully get us to 2050, considering the disruptions in the sector that we all observe?”, he wondered, referring to the technological leaps of reusable launchers. “I strongly doubt it, and I believe we need a more offensive and aggressive strategy”.
“I will therefore gather in the next months all the actors to initiate a ‘European Launcher Alliance’ so to be able to jointly define with the European Space Agency, the Member States, the European Parliament, the industry, a common roadmap for the next generation of launchers and technologies relevant to ensure an autonomous access to space”.
This project will follow the example of GAIA-X, a European alliance of industry clouds (initially a Franco-German project - see EUROPE 12499/15), he told EUROPE at a press briefing. Building on already existing national initiatives, the European Commission, as the launchers’ first institutional client, intends to give them a European dimension and “European perspective”.
This Alliance will cover reusable launchers, but also mini-launchers. It will also support the development of launch centres, while avoiding excessive dispersion.
The idea remains unclear, for the time being, in the eyes of some observers, even if this project would help to resolve the tensions between Germany and France on the issue (see EUROPE 12606/6). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)