By Ron Faith
The RBC Signals team recently had the pleasure of attending the SmallSat Europe conference in Amsterdam. It is a critical time for the space industry and we had the following observations coming out of the conference:
“Sovereign” means different things to different players in Europe
Europe has identified the strategic need for sovereign space systems. This is critical for their independence and collective security. The issue is that different groups have a different definition of sovereign in Europe. For example, there is the European Space Agency (ESA) whose member countries include the United Kingdom. The European Union have a different definition of what countries are in and what countries are out. For example, a recent European decision on space ports and said that Scotland and Norway were out. Europe needs more countries in the tent, not less as they try to move their sovereign initiatives forward.
Europe needs to make up time in launch and spaceports
Europe has many plans that involve constellations such as IRIS^2. This means European companies and national interests need access to space. At the same time, Europe needs to advance its capacity to launch satellites into orbit. This means they need their European launchers to close the gap with companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Firefly. Major milestones need to be achieved in the year ahead from the many smaller European launch companies that are working hard to get there.
European countries are showing real commitments to space with their budgets
Germany leads the way, but there are true commitments rising in dedicated budgets in Europe to space capability development. European companies need to take this as a genuine sign from their respective governments and act on it.
European space development will always be different from what we see in the US and China. European space development requires collaboration and coordination amongst multiple players. European companies and their respective space agencies need to use this as a strength and not an excuse for moving more slowly than their US and Chinese counterparts.