Post by Spaceflight 🚀

1y

#BBC 📆 23 June 2021 @EUSPA will have oversight of everything the #EuropeanUnion 🇪🇺 does as a bloc in #orbit. The #EU now funds 💰 a quarter of all #ESA activities https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57573698

🇪🇺 EU's relationship with #ESA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Agency_for_the_Space_Programme#EU's_relationship_with_ESA

Picture : 🔴 ESA membership only. 🟢 ESA and EU memberships. 🔵 EU membership only https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ESA_and_EU.png

Edited 1y ago

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1y

📆 Apr 18, 2023 🇪🇺 #European #SpacePolicy combined the worst of the parochial politics that guide #NASA funding in the #US with the sluggish ⏳ activity of a traditional aerospace company accustomed to guaranteed contracts. Naturally, therefore, development of the project has lagged and gone over budget. In the nine years since Europe began development of the #Ariane 6 to compete with #SpaceX, the #Falcon9 rocket has nearly doubled its payload capacity 📈 and become partially reusable, so it is now more capable and costs 💵 far less 📉 https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/04/europes-ariane-6-rocket-is-turning-into-a-space-policy-disaster

#SpacePolitics #LaunchCost

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1y

#LeMonde 📆 November 08, 2023 #Seville 🇪🇸 summit : #NASA underwent a similar restructuring 15 years ⏳ ago, culminating in the success of #SpaceX.
In the long term, this context will also call for a change in decision-making within #Europe's 🇪🇺 #SpaceIndustry. The #EU cannot simply remain one of #ESA's clients. It must be able to take its space destiny into its own hands, to ensure its sovereignty. This ambition necessarily requires a change in #governance, which has yet to be achieved. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/europe/article/2023/11/08/the-crucial-paradigm-shift-undertaken-by-europe-s-space-agency_6237077_143.html

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1y

The new #Ariane 6 rocket, which is running four years late ⏳ and still hasn't flown, should be the last #LaunchVehicle developed by #ESA, which will launch a competition of #launchers without weight class limitations. The field of startup launch companies in #Europe 🇪🇺 includes German 🇩🇪 firms like #HyImpulse, #RocketFactory Augsburg, and #IsarAerospace; British 🇬🇧 companies such as #Skyrora and #Orbex; and Spain's 🇪🇸 #PLDSpace. #ESA will use around 75 million euros 💰 to pay for the early stages of the #cargo 📦 challenge, which #Aschbacher expects will result in three companies competing with one another https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/11/after-the-sting-of-ariane-6-europe-finally-embraces-commercial-rockets/