Europe is losing the space race, more rules won’t help |
As space rapidly becomes an essential battlefield, Europe risks being left behind. Its current approach to the new space race — regulate first, compete later — is unlikely to help.
Ukraine’s dependence on SpaceX’s Starlink for military communications has exposed a strategic vulnerability that the European Union is now struggling to address. In its war with Russia, Ukraine has coordinated strikes and battlefield logistics through a single American company’s 8,000-plus satellite constellation — a scale and capability Europe can’t currently match, according to the Tribune News Service.
Although the EU has recognised this gap, its proposed response risks repeating mistakes it made with other cutting-edge technologies, leading to burdensome rules, high costs and few productive companies.
Exhibit A is the EU’s proposed Space Act, which is explicitly framed as a bid to “shape norms and standards globally” for space safety, sustainability and so on. Its goal of harmonizing more than a dozen member-state space policies makes sense. It also identifies real........