Thales, Exploration Company to build European reusable spaceships amid space access crisis

Two European companies were selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) on Wednesday (22 May) to develop a re-entry cargo spaceship and alleviate Europe’s struggle to access space independently.

The Exploration Company in Germany and Thales Alenia Space in Italy are the two space companies that will develop cargo shuttle services to and from space stations in low Earth orbit, the ESA announced during Wednesday’s EU-ESA summit.

The contracts are valued at €75 million, according to Euractiv’s information.

The first goal of the shuttles will be to deliver supplies to and back from the International Space Station (ISS), starting in 2028, a few years before it retires. Their role will evolve to also include future space stations and to transport humans to space.

The results follow a competition among European companies, announced by ESA’s Director-General Josef Aschbacher at the ESA meeting in Seville in November.

The move is designed to make Europe more independent in its access to space, after years of struggle to get the new Ariane6 rocket ready and having to rely on billionaire Elon Musk’s American company SpaceX to send its satellites into space so as not to jeopardise its European GPS programme Galileo.

Ariane6 should see its first flight take place in the first half of July, ESA announced on Tuesday (21 May).

The Europeans do not currently produce reusable spaceships and would therefore count on non-European assets for that.

The American SpaceX company has started making reusable rockets in recent years. China and India are also looking at putting their own options on the market.

But re-entry cargo ships are also seen as an essential part of a more sustainable use of space, as they can bring back debris or assets stagnating unused in orbit.

“The signature of the contracts shows how ESA has modernised to meet the demands of the next era of the space economy,” Aschbacher said in a statement.

In addition, “the result demonstrates how ESA is helping to strengthen, diversify and expand the European space industry, increasing the competitiveness of Europe,” ESA also stated in a press release.

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/  Zoran Radosavljevic]

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