Europe battles to catch US and China in space race

European leaders are confronting their yawning gulf with the US and China in an accelerating space race, as the continent attempts to jump-start efforts to build a shared space programme following the collapse of collaborative projects with Nasa.

Europe has found itself outmuscled and flat-footed in the rush to dominate space in recent years, with officials warning that the continent’s failure to establish an autonomous presence could significantly compromise areas including communications, defence and security.

The gap with the US and China, particularly in critical areas such as rocket launchers and satellite constellations, will feature prominently at a summit of leaders in Paris this week, where the withdrawal of major US space companies has heightened Europe’s sense of vulnerability.

“Europe really needs to catch up in terms of its capability and also autonomy in certain technologies,” said Josef Aschbacher, head of the European Space Agency. He pointed out that at present only Russia, China and the US have the ability to send astronauts into space.

“So some may ask . . . what’s wrong with Europe? Why does Europe not have this capability and why is Europe not able to do so? This is exactly the question I’m asking,” Aschbacher said.

Under US President Donald Trump, Nasa budget cuts have put an end to the so-called Gateway space station in lunar orbit, which was to be a staging post for missions to the Moon’s surface. In March, the US space agency “paused” and in effect cancelled the project, which included key contributions from ESA and European companies.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon’s Blue Origin, two US space industry behemoths, have backed out of attending the Paris event, according to French officials.

European officials have also warned about the scale of Russian and Chinese ambitions in space, and the need for the continent’s biggest capitals to collectively support continental rivals.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will use her speech to the summit, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, to warn delegates that space is too critical to be left to individual member states and that it will need collective action through multinational groupings such as ESA.

That message echoes similar warnings from the EU and its major capitals against reliance on third countries for critical technology such as AI platforms, defence products and digital tools.

European aerospace and defence groups Airbus, Thales and Leonardo, which agreed to merge their space units last October in a deal codenamed Bromo, are in discussions with the Commission ahead of filing for formal antitrust clearance.

The merger is being driven by concerns over how to remain competitive in the face of Chinese and US competitors, including SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communications platform.

The Commission is also preparing the Iris² secure satellite constellation, with the first launches expected in 2029. Germany, equipped with its own €35bn budget for space-related defence projects, is separately planning its own constellation.

“What has shifted now, significantly, is that Europe is really picking up on the importance of space for its economy and its society and its countries,” said Aschbacher, who is pushing states to back plans for Europe to fly its own astronauts into orbit, a long-held ESA ambition.

“What we realised is that we have been very exposed, and we do need to reflect on what Europe’s ambition is,” he added.

Europe has recently reasserted its autonomous access to space with the ramp-up of launches by the French Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket and the smaller Italian-led Vega programme. Both programmes launch from the European spaceport in French Guiana.

On Saturday, a German start-up, Isar Aerospace, became the first commercial entity to launch a rocket into orbit from Europe after blasting off from Norway.

But Europe is still racing to develop viable reusable rockets comparable to those used by SpaceX. Its rocket groups can at present handle about a dozen flights a year between them, compared with the 170 rockets launched by Musk’s group last year.

SpaceX did not return a request for comment and Blue Origin declined to comment. An official in the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy said: “The Trump administration continues to collaborate with allies and partners in space.”

Additional reporting by Barbara Moens in Brussels, Clive Cookson in London, James Politi in Washington and Rafe Rosner-Uddin in San Francisco