Europe’s satellites sector needs launch capabilities
From Anatolii Papulov, CEO and co-founder of NewOrbit, Reading, Berkshire, UK
The debate around antitrust issues arising from Leonardo and Airbus’s deal to take on SpaceX misses the larger issue facing the space industry (“‘Major’ antitrust demands would destroy Europe space deal, warns Leonardo chief”, Report, July 21).
Europe has many ambitious companies and talented people trying to make Europe a leading international space player in satellites. The issue is that there is not a cost-competitive rocket launching capability to actually get the satellites into space.
One of the major reasons why only Starlink became successful in satellite communications is that it controls its own launch capacity. This capability to launch large numbers of satellites at any time does not exist in Europe.
SpaceX is already ramping down the access to their launch for any external projects as they need this capacity to launch new AI satellites. The alternatives are limited and imperfect, as they do not have the record, reliability or the cheap pricing needed to deploy large satellite constellations.
Europe has the potential to compete in areas not dominated by the US, such as very low Earth orbit satellites. However, if we don’t develop a European launch capability, we risk ending up in a position where Europe’s space ambitions are in effect decided overseas, regardless of if the Airbus and Leonardo deal goes through.
If a European provider can deliver dependable, competitively priced access to orbit, it will not only secure our sovereignty but will tap into a huge and growing global demand for launch that currently has nowhere else to go.
Anatolii Papulov
CEO and co-founder of NewOrbit, Reading, Berkshire, UK