Speaking to a group of journalists in Brussels on Friday 29 May, European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher stressed the need for Europe to strengthen its autonomy in space, particularly in human spaceflight. He called for ambitious political choices to avoid lasting dependence on the United States and consolidate European industrial competitiveness (see EUROPE 13866/29).
He first of all noted his priorities for ESA: “My challenge for ESA is to, first of all, have a competitive industry. That means a very competitive space ecosystem. And to make sure that we have good space projects for Europe at European level.”.
Josef Aschbacher also noted that, last year, “we carried out a record 46 satellite launches, and we are expecting around 65 this year”. He added that “ESA has around 6,000 employees, has a budget of €8.2 billion, and invests these funds in European industry”.
On the international context, he pointed to the imbalance with the United States, where public and private investment is significantly higher: US public spending in the space sector is around six times higher than in Europe. Globally, private funding accounts for around 20%, compared with 80% from public funding.
As regards human spaceflight, Josef Aschbacher stressed that European autonomy has become a major strategic issue. Only three powers - the United States, Russia and China - currently have this capability.
Europe now depends exclusively on the United States for astronauts’ access to orbital flights, as cooperation with Russia has ceased. In his view, this raises a central political question: should Europe remain a “passenger” or become a “pilot”? He observed that this decision lies with the states and the European institutions.
He indicated that some technological building blocks already exist, notably the low Earth orbit cargo return programme, while other elements — such as Ariane 6, Kourou and the control centres — are already in place or under development. In his view, developing a full capability would take around a decade, depending on the political choices made and the resources mobilised.
Asked about Europe’s ability to cope with a major military crisis without depending on US space assets, he noted that this assessment was a matter for the military authorities. From a space perspective, however, he considered that Europe does not yet have capabilities equivalent to those of the major powers.
He nevertheless underlined Europe’s excellence in observation technologies (ISR, Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance), notably very high-resolution optical and radar sensors. The issue, he explained, goes beyond the sensors themselves: it concerns the whole system, including rapid data analysis, onboard artificial intelligence and the immediate transmission of information. In his view, this implies numerous, interconnected and responsive constellations integrating observation and connectivity. This model lies at the heart of future European space security and defence programmes, which are still at an early stage. He stressed the need to invest and accelerate in order to avoid industrial decline comparable to that seen in the digital sector 20 years ago. On the Gateway programme and the revision of the US lunar architecture (Artemis), he noted that these decisions are a matter for NASA. Gateway was part of that framework and has been affected by the adjustments announced in March. He played down the impact on the ESA, specifying that exploration accounts for around 10% of its budget, half of which is in cooperation with NASA, meaning direct financial exposure of around 5%. The impact is therefore more political and symbolic than budgetary.
The head of ESA also considered that European space initiatives are both a factor for cooperation and fragmentation, with national projects linked to defence and sovereignty gaining momentum.
In his view, this development can be made more effective through the interoperability of national systems, in order to strengthen overall robustness without moving to a fully centralised model.
Lastly, on the European Commission’s proposal concerning the future allocation of 2 GHz band spectrum for mobile satellite services (see EUROPE 13875/6), Mr Aschbacher stressed its strategic nature: “Without spectrum, it is impossible to operate constellations and spacecraft. So [...] this is absolutely fundamental how this is allocated. Spectrum is an integral part of the autonomy we want to [...] create. That is why this is an extremely strategic, important decision”. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)