On Wednesday evening, Josef Aschbacher, the director general of the European Space Agency, urged European countries to boost funding to the ESA. In a meeting with ministers from ESA member states, he said that by investing €1 billion per year over the next 10 years, Europe could finally afford to send astronauts into space without relying on NASA.
“It is up to you. Will we be passengers or pilots?” Aschbacher told ministers.
One space official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, said that the countries looked at the proposal with interest, which still needs to be discussed at an ESA ministerial meeting in Rome in December.
“It is no miracle that the U.S. has a company like SpaceX. It is because the public sector is investing a lot,” the official said.
On the first day of the summit, the space industry associations of France, Germany and Italy urged the EU to allocate “at least €60 billion” to the sector as part of its upcoming 2028-2034 budget. Speaking after Macron at the summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed that under the Commission’s proposal, €131 billion would be allocated to defense, security and space.
Macron, meanwhile, called for autonomous European space missions in the coming years, backed by “a European space budget that matches our ambitions” — without quantifying the sums involved.