How to get the European space industry off the ground?

In order to make its voice heard on the international stage, Europe must find its place among the major space powers: the United States and China in particular. Space has become a major geostrategic challenge, a political and economic playground where the power of persuasion and the power of coercion are at stake.  

Following the 2017 note entitled Space: Will Europe Strike Back?, Institut Montaigne has continued its study of risks and opportunities for Europe in relation to space affairs. In February 2019, it held a Franco-German seminar on space issues to explore new routes for additional European cooperation in that field.  

Drawn up by three European experts - one French, one Finnish and one German - this note takes stock of recent trends and issues in the space sector. It analyses Europe's current position in New Space, highlighting the potential and limits of the space policy pursued by the European Union in recent years and makes five public policy proposals aimed at making Europe a real space power.

A space not so far away

Space has become a central element of society. The multiplication of applications using satellite positioning systems (such as GPS or Galileo), the development of space imagery services for defence and industry and the central role of telecommunications all contribute to increasing our dependence on satellites, making it increasingly urgent to protect these strategic infrastructures.

New players in the space sector

On an economic level, Earth orbit is the new frontier of Big Data. Digital behemoths are investing billions of dollars to build satellite constellations to provide new connectivity services to the planet. In terms of amounts, the digital giants have thus become the first to invest in new space infrastructure.

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(Source : Starlink VLEO Constellation, Mark Handley)

The New Star Wars

From a geopolitical point of view, the Sino-American rivalry now extends to space. The renewed ambition of the United States is beginning to bear fruit: public investments are on the rise (NASA's budget rose by $2 billion in 2018 and again in 2019 and the lunar mission projects under the Artemis programme are evidence of this renewed interest). Ambitions are just as strong on the Chinese side and are clearly part of the "New Silk Road" project.

Europe has so far enjoyed real leadership in the space sector. But faced with the transformations in the sector, is it still in the race?

European moment for space

Europe has succeeded in establishing itself in several key segments of New Space: it now has world-class European champions and an industrial fabric of which it can be proud. In a speech delivered on 22 January 2020, Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Space Policy, reiterated his determination to make space a priority: "Space is at the intersection of technological leadership, industrial strategy and geostrategic considerations. This is why, as your new European Commissioner in charge of space, you will be able to count on me to push an ambitious European Space Agenda". By bringing together the defence and space industries in the same Directorate-General, the European Union has at last taken account of the strategic dimension of the space sector.

Three major European programmes

Three programmes developed by the European Union testify to the importance of space for Europe.

• GOVSATCOM: launched by the Commission in December 2013, this system should enable government satellite communications as of 2020 and guarantee the security of satellite communication services to organisations and operators deemed strategic for the EU. Its development is ongoing, but remains dependent on the resources allocated to it in the next EU budget.
   
• Galileo: this is a satellite positioning system (radionavigation) developed by the European Union and one of its main achievements. However, a breakdown in July 2019 revealed that the system was still in a learning phase.
   
• Copernicus: this earth observation system is an undeniable scientific success, particularly for the study of climate change. It gives Europe real powers of persuasion in international relations, as demonstrated by Copernicus' coverage of the fires that ravaged Siberia and the Amazon in the summer of 2019. However, the European project for the development of a private ecosystem based on the exploitation of the data collected by this system remains insufficient to date.

Overhauling European space policy

To reap the benefits of these investments in space, Europe can no longer rest on its laurels. Above all, it must strengthen the financing of these programmes in the context of the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027. European space governance, which remains partly inadequate, needs to be rethought, in particular as regards the role of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the articulation of its action with that of the Commission. The European space industry, which represents Europe's real strength in this field, must also be preserved and developed, through a new European industrial policy making space one of its priorities.