Europe’s space ambitions at risk over dependence on Nasa, agency warns
The bloc relies on Nasa capabilities for as much of half of its exploration budget
Europe must become less dependent on Nasa’s technology and exploration programmes if it wants to keep its status as a major space power, according to the head of the European Space Agency.
The turmoil over proposed severe cuts in Nasa’s funding is a “wake-up call” for Europe, as about half of the ESA exploration budget could be affected by decisions on Nasa funding, director-general Josef Aschbacher said.
“In some domains, we have been too exposed in terms of dependence . . .[on] Nasa,” Aschbacher told the Financial Times. Nasa would always be an important partner, he added, but “the partnership model that we had in the past may not be working for the future”.
The agency’s member states are discussing the impact on Europe’s exploration and science programmes of White House proposals to cut Nasa’s annual budget by 25 per cent, with a near 50 per cent reduction in spending on science.
They are debating how to reassess funding and international partnerships to make European space missions more autonomous, when they meet in November to set the ESA’s next three-year budget.
Although 95 per cent of ESA’s total €7.7bn annual budget is independent of decisions made in the US, roughly half of the €600mn allotted for human and robotic exploration this year relies on Nasa’s current spending plans, according to Aschbacher. The ESA is expected to request an even bigger budget for exploration at the November ministerial meeting.
The White House has proposed axing several projects important to European space ambitions, including the Lunar Gateway, a space station destined to orbit the moon, and part of the planned Artemis Moon programme — the vehicle for many of Europe’s lunar ambitions. US participation in the ESA-led Rosalind Franklin Mars rover mission, due to launch in 2028, is also under threat.
Congress is resisting the proposals, with both houses proposing maintaining Nasa’s budget at about $25bn. But there are concerns that the government is withholding some already allocated funding, and that Nasa has begun to close down some programmes.
The agency announced last month that roughly a fifth of its 18,000 employees had quit due to redundancy programmes demanded by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, created by Elon Musk.
Certain technologies and capabilities, such as those being provided to the Rosalind Franklin mission, were vital to Europe if it intended to maintain its position as a major space faring power, Aschbacher said.
“We can call this a small crisis in particular domains,” the ESA boss said. “We do need those technologies, regardless of whether Nasa’s contribution is coming or not because [they] are needed for any exploration mission in future, whether on the Moon, Mars or somewhere else.”
ESA is also exploring closer ties with countries like India, which aims to land humans on the Moon by 2040.
Aschbacher said the agency was making progress on his goal of boosting private investment in the space sector and that it had signed agreements with 72 investment firms to promote European start-ups and technology.
Last year, some €1.5bn in private investment went into European space companies, according to the European Space Policy Institute, double the roughly €600mn in 2021 and a 56 per cent increase on 2023.