Reliance on US tech to get into orbit is causing jitters, as the prospect of a second Trump presidency gets closer.
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00:00 In 2024, Europe is back in space and standing on its own two feet. At the opening of the
00:11 16th European Space Conference in Brussels on Tuesday, political and industrial leaders
00:15 confirmed that the continent will once again be able to rely on its own launches. The launch
00:21 window is set between the 15th of June and the 31st of July. Since the end of Ariane
00:26 5 in July last year, Europe has been without its own large launcher, a situation that threatens
00:32 the continent's competitiveness and security.
00:37 We have to be honest. We are facing an unprecedented crisis here. Europe has lost its independent
00:48 access to space, putting at risk the sovereign deployment of the Union flagships, Galileo,
00:57 Copernicus and Suni with world. So regaining our sovereignty in terms of access to space
01:06 is paramount if the Union is to remain a credible space actor.
01:13 The new Ariane 6 rocket was scheduled for launch in 2020, but the original schedule
01:18 was too ambitious. There were other difficulties too, supply chains disrupted by the COVID-19
01:23 pandemic, as well as delays in the development of new technologies.
01:31 What's more, for the past two years, Europe has no longer been able to rely on Soyuz,
01:35 Russia's spacecraft. For industry players, lessons need to be learnt.
01:41 Number one, we have to make sure that we have an overlapping launcher from the previous
01:46 generation and the new generation. So what we have learned from the current situation
01:50 is that Ariane 5, which was of course brought out of service in July last year, should overlap
01:56 at least three, four years with the new launcher, just to make sure or just in case. Number
02:01 two, the next heavy launcher that we are now developing through a challenge process will
02:06 for sure be reusable.
02:10 Ariane 6, the new launcher, is an important step towards reinforcing Europe's autonomy
02:14 in terms of space policy. For the time being, Europe must also rely on a number of partners,
02:23 including India and the American company SpaceX.
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