2023-11-05 14:58:30
The 22 countries of the European Space Agency (including the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway) are meeting this Monday, November 6 in Seville. They will be joined on Tuesday by the eight EU countries which are not part of it. This space summit is presented by everyone in Europe as a crucial meeting. Europe is playing its future in space, say those in the space sector. Faced with the Chinese, Indian and American space offensive, Europe has no choice, it must relaunch itself, this is the observation of European leaders.
Published on: 05/11/2023 – 15:58
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With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet
Europeans are forced to make a simple choice: either maintain their autonomy in space, or become clients of other states, or even private companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Currently, they are in a trough – some do not hesitate to call it a European space crisis. On the one hand, Europe does not have autonomous means to send its astronauts into space; it risks being marginalized for manned flights. On the other hand, it no longer has operational launchers since we are still waiting for Ariane 6 and the Italian Vega-C.
The height of irony is that in 2024 it will be SpaceX which will launch the next four satellites of Galileo, the European geolocation constellation.
In this context, the Europeans want to establish in Seville their intention to have “ a permanent and independent presence » in orbit and on the Moon, for manned or robotic flights. They also want to set future investments in climate observation in stone.
The most thorny question will be that of long-term financing at a time when we see Italy and then Germany distancing themselves from Arianespace and its launcher which could cost 350 million euros per year.
Europe, today, is not in a very good position compared to its most important competitors…
Xavier Pasco, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research and specialist in space issues
Nicholas Feldmann
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