6.2 Necessary measures and open issues

service customers outside of the space industry and this percentage is rising. Enterprises from industries such as logistics and transport, agriculture, insurance, energy and raw materials use satellite-based data and services for fleet management, precision agriculture, the identification and evaluation of damage caused by natural disasters, and monitoring infrastructure networks. Urban and land use planning and smart cities also benefit greatly from NewSpace.

As a growth and innovation driver across many industries, the space sector bolsters the competitiveness of Germany and Europe, creates high-quality jobs and increases societal prosperity. The interdisciplinary nature of the space sector gives it macroeconomic relevance which should be reflected in the structures of the German government, and its authorities and institutions.

The broad range of the NewSpace ecosystem in Germany and Europe with its mix of start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises, and established companies and system integrators is a big strength. At the same time, the distance between the space sector in Europe on the one hand and the United States and China on the other has increased substantially over the last few years. Non-European technology corporations dominate the field, from rocket launches and the development of mega constellations in space to human space travel. Europe runs the risk of being left behind in this key emerging field. The current funding tools are mostly too inflexible, to strongly focussed on research, and largely still stem from the last millennium.

NewSpace is strategically important for building and maintaining the foreign and security policy scope to act and assess independently. The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has further underlined the value of satellite-based data. Space systems have long become part of the critical infrastructure. An outage would have wide-reaching consequences on the whole industrial sector.

Cooperation in the space sector between Russia and the European Space Agency (ESA) has been discontinued in many areas, including cooperation in the field of Soyuz launchers and the use of the European space station in Kourou. This is significant because in the past year more Soyuz launchers (7) were launched under the European flag than original European rockets (3 Ariane, 3 Vega).

European rockets including the Vega contain components (particularly engines) produced in Ukraine and Russia. Furthermore, the launch of the new Ariane 6 has been postponed. Launches with Soyuz and Vega rockets have therefore been discontinued indefinitely and there is no replacement in sight. At the same time, there are fewer US transport capacities available as an alternative. Whether and to what extent the new Ariane rockets can compensate for this remains to be seen. The current Ariane 5 is an old model.

Countries that fail to invest now will soon lose their capacity to act independently and will have to pay twice the price later on. Our dependency on Soyuz launchers should serve as a warning to Germany and Europe.

6.2 Necessary measures and open issues

An increasingly data-based and networked industrial and information society depends on independent and smooth critical infrastructure and service availability at all times. Unrestricted access to space with own launchers is an essential prerequisite to ensuring the strategic sovereignty of Germany and Europe. Since the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, Europe is in danger of losing, at least temporarily, its access to space. The changing times in defence policy is also and especially a change in times for the European space sector. The consequences of this are dramatic.