The European Union risks falling further behind in the 21st century space race unless it can rapidly scale up a new generation of low-cost rockets built and launched by the bloc to deliver satellites into orbit.
While Europe remains a global leader in satellite technologies like GPS and environmental monitoring, its rocket launch capacity has been stunted. Between 2023 and 2024, Europe had no independent access to space and was forced to rely on the United States.
Even when available, European rockets account for a sliver of the global market, and the cost of sending objects into space is far higher than with competing, largely U.S., providers.
The gap carries growing strategic and economic risk. The war in Ukraine has demonstrated satellites’ importance for battlefield intelligence and internet connectivity. At the same time, the rapidly expanding space economy is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2034.
According to space experts, European officials and industry leaders who spoke with The Parliament, Europe’s launch ecosystem may now be approaching a turning point. Policymakers are shifting toward a model that leverages the expertise and capital of private providers — an approach that has helped transform the space industry in the U.S.
Sovereign access to space "has never been more important because of the geopolitical situation,” said Toni Tolker-Neilsen, the acting director of space transportation for the European Space Agency. “We’ve realized we have to take care of our own security. We want to be able to launch what we want when we want.”
Europe’s uneven launch record
In the wake of World War II, Europe largely ceded the space race to the U.S. and Soviet Union. It wasn’t until the 1960s that Europe began forming the institutions that became the European Space Agency in 1975. Four years later, Europe carried out its first successful launch of its own rocket, the Ariane — a joint project between France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
But after 44 years of continuous access to space, Ariane 5 flew its final flight in 2023, and production delays meant the next Ariane model wasn’t ready to take on new payloads. At the same time, the war in Ukraine barred Europe from launching Russian Soyuz rockets — which Europe had started to use in conjunction with European-built models in 2011.
That led to a yearlong gap where Europe was not able to send objects to space with its own rockets, forcing capitals and private companies to rely on Elon Musk’s SpaceX instead. In 2023, the European Commission signed a €180 million deal with SpaceX to launch Galileo satellites to support European GPS capabilities.
Finally, in July 2024, with the launch of Ariane 6 and the return of the smaller Vega-C rocket to flight later that year, Europe regained sovereign access to space.
But Europe’s rocket launch capabilities are still far behind the U.S., and increasingly, China.
In 2025, America made 193 rocket launches and China 93. European firms, such as Ariane and Isar Aerospace, managed only seven, according to SpaceStats. That scarcity drives up costs per launch, leaves fewer European satellites in orbit and forces European satellite providers to entrust their technology — and money — to American companies.
Europe’s lag in the space economy
Europe’s failure to develop more launching solutions has two downstream effects. First, it undermines the strategic autonomy that has become the EU’s leitmotif since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Second, it limits the continent’s role in shaping the growing space economy.
Europe’s reliance on SpaceX was first laid bare in 2023, yet governments and private satellite manufacturers have continued to book launches on SpaceX’s low-cost rockets. Austria, for example, has contracted SpaceX to put its first-ever military satellite into orbit in 2027.
However, using SpaceX to launch sensitive European satellites has become more fraught as the EU’s digital regulations butt up against Musk’s business interests. In December 2025, the European Commission fined social media platform X €120 million for deceptive design practices under the Digital Services Act, prompting Musk to lash out at the EU.
Washington even put a visa ban on former European Commissioner Thierry Breton after the Frenchman played a central role in advancing Europe’s digital rules. Ironically, Breton had been the one who approved the launch contracts to SpaceX in 2023.
When asked if he would still trust SpaceX to launch European satellites, Tolker-Neilsen said the EU is already planning more satellite launches with the company. He added that the arrangement isn’t ideal, and that “it’s my job to ensure that we can launch everything we want to launch from Europe.”
But sovereignty concerns are only part of the problem. The global space economy is projected to balloon in the coming decade, according to the Colorado-based Space Foundation. Without a low-cost launcher option, European satellite operators — where most of the money is to be made — will struggle to compete, analysts told The Parliament.
Dr. Benjamin L. Schmitt, a senior fellow at the Kleinnman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, described the 2020s as a “global commercial space renaissance,” as more firms have moved into new satellite technologies and even considered launching data centers into space.
Europe’s space-race comeback
Until 2023, Europe’s rocket industry was largely government-managed and funded, with Ariane receiving a steady stream of investment from the European Space Agency.
Initially it worked well: Ariane delivered some of the most reliable and low-cost rockets in the world, even launching NASA’s James Webb Telescope into space in 2021. By that time, however, the market had already started to change.
As soon as SpaceX launched Falcon 9 in 2010 — a partially reusable rocket — private investment and audacious innovations began to define the industry.
NASA used public funds to ensure a steady stream of government contracts to SpaceX and other private companies, building out the space industry and eventually driving down prices. Today, using Europe’s Ariane to launch objects into space costs up to three times more than with SpaceX, according to Bruegel.
Another disadvantage is the lack of reusable rockets. In 2014, European leaders dismissed the idea as infeasible, and have since admitted that choosing to go with traditional designs was a mistake. Europe still doesn’t have reusable rockets today.
But growing privatization has its downsides. Researchers warn of the proliferating space debris, patchy regulation and the risk of concentrating space power in a few private hands. The EU hopes to address some of these concerns with a proposed Space Act that aims to set clearer corporate rules.
However, public and private funding for space in Europe has doubled from €8 to €16 billion between 2014 and 2024. In November, the European Space Agency received a 30% budget increase, with a clear mandate to work on security and defence issues.
“Europe is really catching up,” said Andrius Kubilius, european commissioner for defence and space at the 18th European Space Conference in January, while acknowledging that bloc “need[s] to take our launch capacity to the next level” to ensure the bloc’s security and participation in the growing space economy.
“I think that in 10 years' time, the situation can be very different,” he added.
But Europe catching up in the space race, analysts and officials told The Parliament, hinges on how fast the continent can copy NASA’s playbook and privatize the industry.
“We don't want to own the launch system anymore,” Tolker-Nielsen said. “We want to buy a service and be an anchor customer to these new launchers.” Tolker-Nielsen and other leaders in Europe’s space community, including Breton, have also called for a Buy-European preference, to shore up clients for future European launch providers such as Germany’s Isar Aerospace and Spain’s PLD Space.
“For us as Europeans, having that sovereign space access is critical, and to get to space you need engines,” said Adrià Argemí, CEO of Pangea Propulsion, a Spain and France-based company developing rocket engines. “There are stars aligning, and unfortunately because of the geopolitical situation in the world there’s a real need to wake up fast.”
Sign up to The Parliament's weekly newsletter
Every Friday our editorial team goes behind the headlines to offer insight and analysis on the key stories driving the EU agenda. Subscribe for free here.