The war between Russia and Ukraine has illustrated the dependencies. SpaceX — whose dominance in low-Earth orbit through systems such as Starlink has raised concerns over wartime connectivity for countries relying on it like Ukraine — should be “a wake-up call to really think about what Europe needs for its own autonomy,” he said.
Aschbacher referred to Europe as a “sleeping beauty” with “excellent capacities,” citing Galileo and Copernicus — the EU’s satellite navigation and Earth observation programs — as successes, but said Europe needs more funding, faster decision-making and “defragmentation.”
He pointed to the U.S. accounting for 60 percent of global public space funding, with Europe trailing behind at just 10 percent. “I would ask the decision-makers to multiply our investment by a factor of two, at least, if not three,” he said.
“There is no alternative. We have to do it. This is not, for me, a plan B,” Aschbacher said.