There are no supermarkets or DIY stores in the space. So, while they spend time on the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts need food supplies and spare parts, for example. So far they have relied on SpaceX, Roscosmos, or… … JAXA, companies from the United States, Russia and Japan, are the only countries capable of providing this service. This was not a problem, because they were friendly countries, and we Europeans had a close relationship of cooperation with them, but unfortunately it was lost. One area in which the EU now requires greater autonomy is in space, and to achieve this it relies on small companies such as Exploration, a German aerospace startup that is developing reusable space capsules back and forth to ferry cargo and even crew into low orbit. If it meets target deadlines, it will dock for the first time in 2028.
The Apostle Nyx capsule is called after the Greek goddess of the night. It serves Earth and lunar orbit destinations. It has low-density carbon-based thermal protection technology, allowing for a safe return. Its docking mechanism, its flight software, its modular COTS-based avionics and its comprehensive digital platform that allows the vehicle’s digital twin to be managed and technical documentation automatically updated have also been developed. It will head to one of the eight docking points on the International Space Station, a port reserved for a specific time window. Once its capability is proven, it will open the doors for the company to future commercial and private space stations. According to the US Space Foundation, the size of the global space travel market already exceeds $600 billion annually, and this trend is growing strongly. Europe cannot be excluded from this sector, and the Knicks are one of its hopes.
22.1 billion ESA budget
The exploration company, which has 400 employees, is funded not through government subsidies, but through investments and government contracts. It attracts private investment from customers with whom it has agreed orders. According to the company, it has already sold five missions and three private space stations have signed corresponding contracts. The European Space Agency has previously awarded contracts worth 25 million euros, but the total cost of developing NEX is estimated at 450 million, and any delay in funding could destroy the project. This is undoubtedly one of the companies that will benefit from the budget increase decided by the ESA Council meeting at ministerial level (CM25), held this week in Bremen. The meeting, led by Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency, approved a budget of 22.1 billion euros for the next three years, far exceeding the 16.9 billion euros set for 2022, which was already a record high.
“The key is in defense,” Aschbacher explained of the budget jump. Although the European ministers attending the meeting are science and research ministers, most of the budget increase comes from items allocated to defence. “It is easier to explain the importance of space travel today than it was three years ago,” says Aschbacher, referring to the new security situation in Europe. “In the future, funding for space activities will increasingly come from defense ministries, whereas in the past, at least in Europe, the main funding came from civilian ministries.”
Germany, for example, the largest taxpayer, removed the debt limit from its constitution so that it can finance any defense-related project unlimitedly through public debt. Space Minister Dorothy Barr has contributed €5 billion to the European Space Agency’s new budget, taking advantage of the opportunity to bolster her weight at ESA. The next taxpayer is France, with 3.599 million. Spain announced a contribution of $1,854 million. And all this thanks to the European Resilience from Space (ERS) programme, in which ESA for the first time points out the military benefits of potential remote sensing, navigation and monitoring technologies with hitherto unknown clarity.
When setting investment priorities, the European Space Agency identifies that manufacturing rockets that carry satellites into space is urgent. Europe was counting on Ariane, but the current Ariane 6 project, which ensures Europe’s autonomous access to space from the European Spaceport in French Guiana, has suffered from delays, as has the Italian Vega-C, from Avio, so that European satellites are piling up to be launched, while Elon Musk fills orbit with thousands of Starlink stations.
According to the Federation of German Aerospace Industries (BDLI), 220 satellite transport rockets were launched last year, most of them in American projects, and 67 in China and Europe, behind India, which carried out only 4 launches. Part of the increase in ESA’s budget will go to startups that are still developing small rockets and that could become manufacturers of highly capable rockets in the medium term. It has organized a competition in which two winners will receive €169 million each. The five startups that entered pre-selection for the European Launcher Challenge (ELC) are Ottobrunn’s German subsidiary Isar Aerospace, Augsburg Rocket Factory, Orbex from the United Kingdom, PLD Space from Spain, and Maiaspace from France.
These new companies continue to depend in part on the giants of the sector. If Helen Hobby was able to convince the exploration company to launch the NEX project so quickly, since its founding in 2021, it is largely because she is a former Airbus executive who hired some experienced engineers from her former employer and did not impede personal and family ties with Macron’s entourage in France.
But the new concept of “European defense sovereignty”, which leads to large budget movements, favors these small and agile companies, which do not engage in long negotiations with countries but rather understand themselves as European, beneficiaries of international investors, and taking risks in their own enterprise.