Some weeks reshape decades, and this is one of them. In just a few days, three events outlined the map of what space policy will look like in the coming years. Last Friday, the German Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket was successfully launched from Andøya in Norway, reaching the intended orbit. This was the first time a private European company placed a launcher into orbit from continental European soil, representing a significant milestone in Europe's engineering, strategic, economic, and technological plans.
While Europe took this step, the United States is preparing a leap with SpaceX announcing Starbase Louisiana: a $100 billion investment to build ten Starship launch platforms, the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's COO, stated that the project will make the current Starbase in Texas a "small operation". Elon Musk's target points to more than 30 launches per day by 2030, with construction beginning in 2027 and the first launch scheduled for 2029.
It is in this context that Ursula von der Leyen took the stage at the International Space Summit in Paris, convened by Emmanuel Macron and bringing together around 120 delegations. SpaceX and Blue Origin withdrew from the summit under pressure from Washington, escalating geopolitical tensions in this domain as well. The President of the European Commission charted the political direction by committing the European Space Agency to a new European vision for space access, to aggregate European demand and act as anchor customer for European launchers.
The thread connecting all of this is autonomy. Autonomous access to space is now a strategic security issue. Relying on spaceports and third-party launchers exposes Europe to risks ranging from telecommunications to defense, and Earth observation. The American absence in Paris is the clearest signal that space access cannot be taken for granted and that the time has come for Europe to decide whether it wants to compete or stay watching.
