Europe is being warned not to "miss the train" on the emerging space economy as more than 20 countries gather in Spain, expected to focus on funding for the delayed Ariane 6 rocket as well as climate change and a possible new role in exploration.
The 22-nation European Space Agency (ESA) is holding ministerial talks in Seville on Monday followed by a joint session with the European Union on competitiveness in space on Tuesday, dominated by the rapid growth of Elon Musk's U.S.-based rival SpaceX.
The two-day "Space Summit" comes as Europe faces a gap in autonomous access to space after delays to the new Ariane 6 rocket, combined with a grounding of the smaller Vega-C and severed access to Russia's Soyuz due to the war in Ukraine.
Ministers will try to resolve tensions among leading space nations France, Germany and Italy over launcher policy including medium-term funding for Ariane 6, which is now due to stage its first test launch in 2024, four years behind the original plan.
France, where manufacturer ArianeGroup is based, wants extra funding to help absorb cost overruns, industry sources said. French business newspaper La Tribune last week pegged the shortfall at 350 million euros.
Germany, which is often seen as reluctant to be paymaster for French industry, wants to stimulate its own emerging independent launch sector while Italy wants to protect its Vega-C project and make progress on exploration programmes.
Sources said last week there had been some progress in unblocking a three-way standoff between Europe's leading launch nations but that ministers still faced sensitive budget talks.
Speaking ahead of the Seville meeting, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher declined to comment on the talks but urged Europe not to repeat past mistakes in the technology sector.
"The space economy is growing ... Not participating in this would be, in my opinion, strategically very difficult to justify," Aschbacher told the AJPAE French media association.
Two decades ago, Europe had been not far from the United States or Japan measured by patents and intellectual capability.
"Today, the biggest IT companies are not in Europe. Some are in the US, some of them in China. We have missed the train. Quantum technology is a similar example where we're now trying to catch up," he said.
Europe has carved out a leading role in climate observation, navigation and space science but has not targeted a prime role in human exploration, opting instead for a junior role in projects led by U.S. space agency NASA or until recently Russia.
Ministers are expected to discuss an ESA proposal to invite private funding for a possible new spaceplane designed to carry cargo to and from the space stations of the future. The project could eventually be adapted to include human flight.
The proposal echoes the Hermes spaceplane, which never got off the drawing board. Europe's answer to the U.S. Space Shuttle was designed to carry three astronauts but was scrapped in 1992.
History of ESA ?
European Space Agency (ESA), French Agence Spatiale Européenne (ASE), European space and space-technology research organization founded in 1975 from the merger of the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO), both established in 1964. Members include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Slovenia is an associate member. Cooperative agreements have been signed by various countries, including Canada (1981), which participate in some ESA projects. Headquarters of the agency are in Paris.
Representatives of ESA’s member nations form the agency’s policy-making council. A science program committee established by convention deals with matters related to the mandatory science program; other such bodies may be formed by the council to assist in decision making. The chief executive and legal representative of ESA is the director general, assisted by an inspector general and the directors of various departments.
The principal components of the organization are (1) the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), located in Noordwijk, Netherlands, which houses the satellite project teams and testing facilities and is the agency’s main space science and technological research centre, (2) the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), located in Darmstadt, Germany, which is concerned with satellite control, monitoring, and data retrieval, (3) the European Space Research Institute (ESRIN), located in Frascati, Italy, which supports the ESA Information Retrieval Service and the Earthnet program, the system by which remote sensing images are retrieved and distributed, (4) the European Astronaut Centre (EAC), located in Cologne, Germany, which is a training centre, and (5) the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), located in Villafranca del Castillo, Madrid, Spain, which holds scientific operations centres as well as archives. ESA also operates the Guiana Space Centre (CSG), a launch base in French Guiana.
The Giotto space probe, developed and launched by the European Space Agency for a flyby of Halley's Comet in 1986.
European Space Agency officials tracking Mars Express and Beagle 2 from the main control room of the European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Ger.
European Space Agency officials tracking Mars Express and Beagle 2 from the main control room of the European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Ger.
Know about the European Space Agency's Don Quijote project designed to deflect asteroids heading to collide with the Earth Know about the European Space Agency's Don Quijote project designed to deflect asteroids heading to collide with the Earth
ESA has cooperated with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on many projects and, on its own, was responsible for the Giotto space probe, which enabled examination of the core of Halley’s Comet in 1986. ESA also developed the Ulysses spacecraft (launched 1990) to explore the Sun’s polar regions and the Ariane series of launch vehicles, and it established a system of meteorological satellites known as Meteosat. At the beginning of the 21st century, ESA launched the Mars Express orbiter and its lander, Beagle 2. With the launching of the Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station in 2008, ESA became a full partner in the operation of the station. In 2009 ESA launched Planck, a satellite that is designed to study the cosmic microwave background, and Herschel, an infrared observatory that is the largest telescope in space.