**The 22 ministers of the European Space Agency’s member countries are meeting to establish the institution’s budget for 2023-2025 and distribute it among the various programs. Le Monde journalists Dominique Gallois, Pierre Barthélémy and Philippe Jacqué, our Belgium correpondent, report:**
Europe wants to stay in the space race, or at least not fall too far behind. Europe’s space industry pales in comparison at a time when the US and China have relaunched space exploration and when private projects are expanding on the other side of the Atlantic, starting with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite constellation to broadcast high-speed internet. The European consortium’s access to space is weakened by the delay of its Ariane-6 rocket, and Franco-German tensions have penalized certain projects. The contrast is reinforced by the momentum of several countries creating their own space agencies and India’s preparation for its first manned flight.
It is in this context that the 22 ministers of the member countries of the European Space Agency (ESA) are meeting in Paris from Monday, November 21 to November 23. This triennial meeting will establish the budget of the institution for the next three years and distribute it among its various programs. For 2023-2025, the ESA has asked its members for €18.5 billion, an unprecedented increase of 25% compared to 2020-2022. “This is necessary to stay in the race with the Americans and the Chinese, whose resources are increasing at this rate,” said ESA Director Josef Aschbacher. “We must not repeat in the space sector what we did in information technology. We stopped investing 20 years ago and were relegated to the second division.”
Priority is given to space transportation. The aim is to get Ariane-6 off the ground as quickly as possible. The first flight is now scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023, three and a half years behind the initial schedule. “We have reorganized the teams to meet the technical challenges we have encountered,” Mr. Aschbacher said. “While I am not making excuses, I would like to remind you that these are still extremely complex technologies.”
However, the time lag is detrimental to European independence, because at least a few months, and perhaps over a year, will pass between Ariane-5’s last flight, scheduled for spring 2023, and the commercial launch of its successor. Europeans will no longer have a heavy launcher to place satellites in geostationary orbit, 36,000 kilometers from Earth.
Good luck with that. With all tax dollars we give to corporations they will make sure the US dominates space.
this will work so well…like any other multi country industry in the EU
Even if we can’t compete we have to maintain our own ways to send shit into space otherwise we will be fucked.
25% increase is good. Hopefully it gets bigger and the money are spent wisely.
maybe it’s also time to try to understand why European countries, EU members, didn’t want to more invest in space project in the 2 | 3 last decades…
I thought that if that happen, it will be clear that the US militaro-space industries It wouldn’t have been very good for them.
Which EU’s countires are the most Atlantic oriented for economy and militariy .. if you know, ask them why space research/investment are so weak …
I’m sure there is enlightening studies about how many $ return in industries and development for each $ invested in space research/development… if any body here find out
Are newspapers now allowed to promote their own articles and bump them up the page with bot upvotes?
8 comments
**The 22 ministers of the European Space Agency’s member countries are meeting to establish the institution’s budget for 2023-2025 and distribute it among the various programs. Le Monde journalists Dominique Gallois, Pierre Barthélémy and Philippe Jacqué, our Belgium correpondent, report:**
Europe wants to stay in the space race, or at least not fall too far behind. Europe’s space industry pales in comparison at a time when the US and China have relaunched space exploration and when private projects are expanding on the other side of the Atlantic, starting with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite constellation to broadcast high-speed internet. The European consortium’s access to space is weakened by the delay of its Ariane-6 rocket, and Franco-German tensions have penalized certain projects. The contrast is reinforced by the momentum of several countries creating their own space agencies and India’s preparation for its first manned flight.
It is in this context that the 22 ministers of the member countries of the European Space Agency (ESA) are meeting in Paris from Monday, November 21 to November 23. This triennial meeting will establish the budget of the institution for the next three years and distribute it among its various programs. For 2023-2025, the ESA has asked its members for €18.5 billion, an unprecedented increase of 25% compared to 2020-2022. “This is necessary to stay in the race with the Americans and the Chinese, whose resources are increasing at this rate,” said ESA Director Josef Aschbacher. “We must not repeat in the space sector what we did in information technology. We stopped investing 20 years ago and were relegated to the second division.”
Priority is given to space transportation. The aim is to get Ariane-6 off the ground as quickly as possible. The first flight is now scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2023, three and a half years behind the initial schedule. “We have reorganized the teams to meet the technical challenges we have encountered,” Mr. Aschbacher said. “While I am not making excuses, I would like to remind you that these are still extremely complex technologies.”
However, the time lag is detrimental to European independence, because at least a few months, and perhaps over a year, will pass between Ariane-5’s last flight, scheduled for spring 2023, and the commercial launch of its successor. Europeans will no longer have a heavy launcher to place satellites in geostationary orbit, 36,000 kilometers from Earth.
**Read the full article:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/europe/article/2022/11/21/europe-s-space-industry-aims-to-compete-with-the-us-and-china_6005080_143.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/europe/article/2022/11/21/europe-s-space-industry-aims-to-compete-with-the-us-and-china_6005080_143.html)
Good luck with that. With all tax dollars we give to corporations they will make sure the US dominates space.
this will work so well…like any other multi country industry in the EU
Even if we can’t compete we have to maintain our own ways to send shit into space otherwise we will be fucked.
25% increase is good. Hopefully it gets bigger and the money are spent wisely.
maybe it’s also time to try to understand why European countries, EU members, didn’t want to more invest in space project in the 2 | 3 last decades…
I thought that if that happen, it will be clear that the US militaro-space industries It wouldn’t have been very good for them.
Which EU’s countires are the most Atlantic oriented for economy and militariy .. if you know, ask them why space research/investment are so weak …
I’m sure there is enlightening studies about how many $ return in industries and development for each $ invested in space research/development… if any body here find out
Are newspapers now allowed to promote their own articles and bump them up the page with bot upvotes?
Nothin like healthy competition. Bring it!