What to know about Europe's push to compete in space

French President Emmanuel Macron has emphasized Europe's push to compete in space, calling for innovation and investment to build a powerful Europe, independent even in space. The International Space Summit in Paris brought together officials, astronauts, and industry leaders from 120 countries to discuss strategies for advancing European space capabilities. The European Union is working on a "sovereign satellite" constellation called Iris2, designed to rival Starlink by providing secure communications and connectivity to its 27-nation bloc. However, it is not expected to be fully operational until 2030.

Europe seeks to build up sovereign space capabilities, with a focus on reducing reliance on U.S. technology. The summit highlighted the importance of satellites as critical infrastructure, with the European Space Agency (ESA) emphasizing the need for a strong space industry. The United States remains the global leader in the space sector, with NASA conducting major exploration missions and overseeing the Artemis program. SpaceX and Blue Origin canceled plans to attend the Paris summit, while Amazon plans to deploy over 3,200 satellites to provide broadband service globally.

The Ariane rocket program, Europe's flagship rocket, allows launches of satellites and is used for the Galileo navigation system and Copernicus Earth-observation program. The most powerful version of the rocket, Ariane 64, successfully launched 100 Amazon Leo satellites in three launches as part of a contract for a total of 18 launches. However, Ariane requires complex logistics and is more expensive to operate than reusable competitors. European leaders are trying to build up domestic space launch capability to reduce dependence on SpaceX rockets. Isar, a German startup, made a major breakthrough in European efforts to catch up with SpaceX by successfully launching a rocket carrying satellites from Norway.

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