Space Policy and Strategy

ESA Space Strategy
Director General’s Annual Press Conference, Paris, 18 January 2022, Josef Aschbacher

ESA wants to accelerate Europe’s access to space
https://spacewatch.global/2022/01/esa-wants-to-accelerate-europes-access-to-space/

Paris, 19 January 2022. – The European Space Agency (ESA) wants to accelerate the use of space in Europe with an annual budget of € 7.15 billion, the agency said.

The largest envelopes are invested in Earth Observation (€ 1.6 billion), Navigation (€ 1.5 billion), and Space Transportation (€ 1 billion), with two thirds coming from the 22 Member States and one third from the European Union. Copernicus suffers a budget shortfall of € 750 million due to the withdrawal of the UK, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in the annual press conference of the agency in Paris. The Sentinel-1B satellite has not sent data since Christmas and suffers technical issues which are under investigation.

ESA’s “accelerators” for the use of space are “Space for a Green Future”, with the Digital Twin Earth project in particular, the “Rapid and Resilient Crisis Response” system that ESA is working on, and the “Protection of European Space Assets” against space debris and space weather.

On top of these “accelerators”, the agency launched two “inspirators”: the Icy Moon Sample Return Mission and the European Human Space Exploration program. ESA is lacking capabilities in crewed space transportation and exploration, Aschbacher said, with a 2021 budget of only € 735 million for that area, compared to $ 12.2 billion for NASA.

ESA’s “Terrae Novae 2030+” plans in space exploration for 2030 and beyond include the ExoMars, Mars Sample Return, Orion Service Module and Gateway missions.

Major launches of telecom satellites in 2022 where ESA is involved include the first Eurostar Neo satellite from Eutelsat, the Oneweb 5G partnership Joeysat, 3 Pioneer Spire cubesats, and the next two batches of Galileo, L12 in March or April and L13 in autumn. The maiden flight of Ariane 6 is in preparation, with the combined tests taking place in the second quarter of the year and no precision on the launch date, while Vega C’s maiden flight is planned for May, ESA said.

French Space Defence Strategy

The « Space » working group report, 2019 (publication Dicod Nov2019):

The sudden emergence of disruptive innovation methods in the space sector – known generically as “New Space” – calls for a change in the way we approach the development of our space capabilities. Alongside central governments, private-sector actors play a key role in the economic development of a space industry which is now more flexible, more innovative, more connected to other segments of the economy. The United States and China have long grasped the importance of this crucial turning-point for the development of our societies. Europe and France cannot turn a blind eye to an emerging area of potential conflict.

UK Space Innovation and Growth Strategy

Space Innovation and Growth Strategy 2014-2030, Space Growth action plan:

The Space Innovation and Growth Strategy, published in February 2010, created real momentum in the sector. It brought industry, academia and Government together around the common cause of driving economic growth and provided the foundation for a transition of the UK space sector from a niche industry towards a high-technology, mainstream, industrial and science sector.This report affirms the ambition to grow and identifies the new actions that are needed to deliver further growth.

» Sec1: Uncertainty regarding the right to recover and use space resources, including the extension of the right to commercial recovery and use of lunar resources, however, has discouraged some commercial entities from participating in this enterprise. Questions as to whether the 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the “Moon Agreement”) establishes the legal framework for nation states concerning the recovery and use of space resources have deepened this uncertainty, particularly because the United States has neither signed nor ratified the Moon Agreement. In fact, only 18 countries have ratified the Moon Agreement, including just 17 of the 95 Member States of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Moreover, differences between the Moon Agreement and the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies — which the United States and 108 other countries have joined — also contribute to uncertainty regarding the right to recover and use space resources.

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Sec 3: the Secretary of State shall seek to negotiate joint statements and bilateral and multilateral arrangements with foreign states regarding safe and sustainable operations for the public and private recovery and use of space resources.

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