Europe’s ministers for space met in Seville on Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 November for a Space Summit, at which progress was made on the future of launchers, space exploration and the use of space in the fight against climate change.
Launchers
The Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Josef Aschbacher, pointed out that Europe does not currently have its own access to space because of delays to Ariane 6 and problems with Vega-C. “We need to get Ariane 6 on to the launch pad as soon as possible”, he stressed, adding that the tests carried out in September and October had been successful. He also indicated that after the test at the end of November, he could be more precise about the launch date for Ariane 6. Vega-C is due to be launched again at the end of 2024.
Given the lack of European launchers, the European Commission is currently negotiating with Space X to launch four Galileo satellites in 2024. “We are in the process of finalising the discussions”, explained the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, adding that secure access to the US launch base was necessary for these launches. There could be two Space X launches of two satellites, in April and July, according to indicative dates.
Despite their current difficulties, at the summit the ministers decided to stabilise the operation of Ariane 6 and Vega-C. In a joint declaration, France, Italy and Germany have announced that Ariane 6 will receive maximum funding of €340 million per year starting in 2026. ESA said it will carry out an audit ahead of the next summit, in 2025, to assess whether this amount could be reduced. The programme’s competitiveness will be guaranteed by a commitment from manufacturers to reduce their costs by 11%, according to French Minister Bruno Le Maire.
This funding will guarantee the long-term operation of Ariane 6 for missions 16 to 42, a total of 27 missions. Ariane 6 will be assigned a minimum of four European institutional missions per year.
For Vega-C, funding will be a maximum of €21 million per year, to finance flights 26 to 42. Vega-C will be assigned a minimum of three European institutional missions per year.
The ministers also agreed on a change in the procedures for awarding contracts for launchers by opening a call for tenders for launchers without a weight category. Funding will be organised at the next summit, in 2025, according to ESA. “For the first time, the three major European countries (Italy, Germany and France) have endorsed the principle of European competition for new launchers”, Mr Le Maire told the media. “We’re completely changing the launcher game. There will be a call for tenders from the industry, which will be able to submit its best bid. We will be customers of launcher services”, explained Mr Aschbacher.
For Mr Breton, “we need to change the way we work on the launcher issue”. While welcoming the agreements reached on launchers, he said that more needed to be done. “We need stronger, more European political, programmatic and institutional sharing”, he explained.
According to the Commissioner, there needs to be more competition to meet programming needs, greater responsibility on the part of industry “with more technological breakthroughs and less, if any, geographical return” and an aggregation of “all institutional launches, from the EU, ESA and the Member States”. Mr Breton recalled Article 5 of the European Space Programme, which calls for a European preference, not just for the European Commission, but for all Member States, including for military launches. “This is the way to ensure the commercial viability of our launchers. This European paradox must come to an end. We want to be autonomous, but there are still too many institutional launches that are not carried out on a European launcher”, he regretted.
Exploration
At the ESA meeting, the ministers also launched a competition between innovative companies based in Europe to set up a space cargo return service, which will enable a European commercial supplier to supply the International Space Station by 2028 and return the cargo to Earth. The service vehicle could evolve into a crew vehicle and possibly serve other destinations, if Member States want this, according to ESA. The 2028 deadline is “very close and very ambitious”, according to Mr Aschbacher.
The first stage of the project will be financed to the tune of €75 million, and private contributions are being sought as part of the competition.
The second phase will form part of the proposals presented at the next ESA Council at ministerial level meeting in 2025.
Sustainability
The summit also provided an opportunity to strengthen ESA’s role in the fight against climate change. The agency will support national and European efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by building on a number of existing ESA activities, including: - the Green Transition Information Factory, which uses Earth observation data, cloud computing and cutting-edge analysis to help policymakers and industries move towards carbon neutrality; - the Iris system for greener aviation via satellite; - efforts to use spatial data to make agriculture, energy and transport greener.
ESA will also accelerate the use of space to respond to natural emergencies through the Rapid and Resilient Crisis Response Accelerator.
On 26 October, the Agency also signed a partnership agreement with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action.
At the same time, ESA is committed to actively reducing the environmental footprint of all space projects throughout their lifecycle and to promoting a clean and sustainable space industry.
In addition, to combat space debris, the ministers invited public bodies and commercial space companies to register their intention to sign a ‘Zero Debris Charter’ in the coming months. ESA, for its part, has signed this Charter (https://aeur.eu/f/9f5 ). “We have to make a big effort, Europe has to be exemplary” in the fight against debris, insisted Anna Christmann, the German coordinator for space policy, whose country currently holds the ESA presidency.
First images of Euclid
In addition, on 7 November, ESA’s Euclid space mission unveiled its first five colour images of the cosmos (see EUROPE 13214/28). “Never before has a telescope been able to create such razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky, and looking so far into the distant Universe”, according to ESA.
The images include the Horsehead Nebula in the nearby constellation of Orion, 1,000 galaxies in the Perseus Cluster, a dwarf galaxy, a hidden galaxy and a globular cluster.
Over the next 6 years, Euclid will observe the shapes, distances and movements of billions of galaxies over a distance of 10 billion light-years. Its aim is to create the largest 3D cosmic map ever made.
To see the ESA Director General’s proposal on ‘Lifting Europe’s Ambitions for a Green and Sustainable Future, Access to Space and Space Exploration’: https://aeur.eu/f/9f8
To see the resolution on ‘Lifting Europe’s Ambitions for a Green and Sustainable Future, Access to Space and Space Exploration’: https://aeur.eu/f/9fa
To see the statement by Germany, France and Italy: https://aeur.eu/f/9fb (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)