Europe enters a private space war at the hands of “Belgian Elon Musk”

New push for commercial control of Spaceembodied by businessmen like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, achieves Europe Belgian’s hand Benoit Depertwho aims to turn his company into the largest satellite factory on the continent and offer the European Union long-awaited strategic autonomy.

At just 36 years old, after working for NASA in the US and then for the European Space Agency, Benoit Depert guides aerospace laboratoryhis own satellite company, which he founded in 2017 because he was “tired” that everything was “too slow” in government agencies.

“When you start a new project (in state bodies), you have to have political support and you need time to get funding until everything is decided. And it usually takes five to 15 years to complete your satellite,” says Deper at the end of his company’s factory visit in the Belgian city of Leuven-la-Neuve.

Instead, this businessman explains that with commercial companies, you can complete the entire process in six months or a year, “because when you have money, you can act quickly because you make a decision,” he says.

However, he acknowledges the importance of government space agencies in developing research projects that require large investments.

“I think we need each other. Agencies work where there are no commercial goals, such as sending people or robots to Mars. There is no money to be made from this, it is pure science and should be funded by the agencies,” he says. .

Deper belongs to a booming industry known as the “new Space”, an emerging global private sector that includes companies developing cheaper aerospace technologies such as Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin.

Although he recognizes them as pioneers in their sector, the founder aerospace laboratory He says he doesn’t feel completely identified with these personalities: “We’re a lot smaller than them, and I think we’re also less crazy,” he sneers.

aerospace laboratory manufactures satellites for sale to other companies and institutions, as well as for its own company. Through them, it collects and sells data and images on an endless number of topics (meteorology, agriculture or critical infrastructure management, among others) and offers communication services and resources that can be used in sensitive areas such as defense, for example. and safety safety.

In search of strategic autonomy

Deper believes companies like his can contribute to the strategic autonomy sought by European Union (EU) leaders for the community club by offering with their companions a “secure communication system” and a zero kilometer that is independent of third countries such as USA or China.

“We are positioning ourselves as one of the providers to make this happen,” he says.

One opportunity to achieve this goal is a new factory they intend to open in 2025 in Belgium that will be able to produce 500 satellites a year, which they say will make it the largest factory in Europe within this sector.

According to Belgian Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder, companies in this private sector “have great potential to add value in search of strategic autonomy” and “strengthen the European foothold within NATO” as they also run part of their commercial activities. in the field of security and defense.

Dedonder argues that in the current geopolitical context, marked by the war in Ukraine and international tensions, it is important to “strengthen the industrial fabric” because the public and private sectors have “common goals.”

Risks of space privatization

However, faced with the growing influence of these companies, the director of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), Hermann Moeller, emphasizes the need to create a “legal framework that protects state and public interests.”

Møller warns that the private aerospace industry is becoming an “increasingly significant” player in future armed conflicts, and explains that these companies’ initial interest, which was purely commercial, has now reached the security and defense markets.

“What is happening right now, and it is definitely a risk, is that the dynamics of the commercial sector are much larger and faster than the typical regulatory framework and lawmaking that is still being practiced on the public side,” he says. director of ESPI, a European think tank based in Vienna.

And he adds: “It’s difficult for the public to keep up with that speed in terms of regulation.”

Therefore, he points out that politicians will have to ensure that space companies’ services are “provided in a manner that protects the interests of the government” and that they are “subject to specific legal restrictions in contracts.”

Within this public-private coexistence, Moeller does not see governments losing sovereignty, and in the future he predicts a system based on “multi-orbit solutions” that are in the hands of various operators, both public and private. EFE

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