Space economy

Europe aims at autonomy for access to space

Ariane 6-4, upgraded with four developed engines, has proven that it can even carry some Kepler satellites into orbit

by Leopoldo Benacchio

26 February 2026

Esa. Ariane 64 ha dato prova di poter portare in orbita alcuni satelliti Kepler

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Cost vs. Musk's Falcon
What is the role of Italia?
He who controls space controls the future

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Europe is continuing its attempt to relaunch itself in the space field, following the important Esa interministerial meeting, November 2025 in Bremen, and the more recent 18th European Space Conference, January 2026 in Brussels.

In Bremen, the cornerstones were set for Esa in the near future, starting with the total funding of around EUR 22 billion, still little, but nevertheless the highest ever. The main objective, which has taken up the whole of 2025, is still the quest for autonomy in accessing space. Esa has always been at the top level as far as scientific satellites are concerned, but delays in the construction of the Ariane 6 heavy launcher and the stoppage of the Vega-C launcher, after the loss of the Ukrainian industrial partners, had led to a moment of deep crisis and to several European satellites being flown with SpaceX's Falcon.

The cost issue compared to Musk's Falcon

Now Europe, with Ariane 6-4, boosted by four engines developed in collaboration with the Italian company Avio, has proved that it can even put into orbit some Kepler satellites, the constellation of Jeff Bezos, the historical antagonist of Elon Musk and his Starlink. So good, even if the problem of cost remains: both launchers are not reusable and are expensive compared to Musk's Falcon, which last year made no less than 170 launches.

What is the role of Italia?

As a side note, we can say that Italia's commitment has also increased in financial terms, up to 3.5 billion, comparable with that of France, after Germany. This did not seem to be matched by a greater Italian presence in the designation of top positions in the Agency.

We have, however, brought home a possible Italian astronaut for the Artemis lunar missions, although it is not clear when the flight that will take the tricolour to the Moon will be, nor who will carry it.

Esa's experimental programme of funding for small private launchers, up to 169 million, is not in good waters: of the five selected, the French Maia, a partly reusable rocket created in collaboration with Arianespace and, in some ways, a competitor to Avio's Vega - C, and the Spanish Miura, seem to have a better chance of reaching the finish line. Orbex, the British project, is in a state of bankruptcy, declared just a few days ago. Building and flying a rocket is no simple matter.

A next, difficult, step should be to resolve the governance problems caused by the fragmentation between ESA, Euspa, which is the European Union Agency for Space, the many national agencies and finally the armed forces of the various countries. The latter, with the importance that 'rearmament' is having after the well-known international events, represent today a new driving force for the European sector and create fears for possible centrifugal situations. One only has to think of the imposing German re-armament plan, which envisages hundreds of billions and a collaboration between Ohb and Rheinmetall for the construction and operation of a military constellation, something that Sweden also wants to do.

While, in this context, the major programmes managed directly by the EU, i.e. Galileo and Egnos for geo-localisation and navigation, Copernicus for earth observation and Iris² for secure communications, remain the pillars of the European Council's space strategy, the new geopolitical situation is forcing the launch of new projects.

He who controls space controls the future

The line that emerged at the Brussels meeting can be summed up with the phrase 'He who controls space controls the future', and Europe too, this time on time, is launching a project for an advanced surveillance network to protect orbital infrastructure from threats such as spoofing, jamming and electronic weapons. Cybersecurity and space have long been one and the same category. In addition to the European space shield just mentioned, the absolute necessity of the Single Space Market was also emphasised, in order to build a competitive industrial base less dependent on non-EU suppliers and a European network of spy satellites to have a superior intelligence capability.

Not everything is going well, let me be clear, the picture remains complex and with open knots: governance, investments, programme integration, but the direction is clear and the solution should start with the resolution of historical limitations, which have considerably burdened it, such as the rigid return-on-investment mechanism and the division between the ESA, the EU, national agencies and the defence sector. These are stratified situations in practice, but today they are the opposite of what efficient geopolitical action requires. Very difficult, but it can be tried.