PARIS — The European Space Agency is moving ahead with plans for the first phase of an Earth observation satellite system that will have both civil and military uses.
Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s director general, said at a June 12 press briefing after a meeting of the ESA Council that the council approved an “enabling resolution” for the European Resilience from Space (ERS) program.
“This is a legal document that formally is a request from the member states that we should prepare the program with all the legal documents,” he said. This would allow member states to formally subscribe to, and fund, the program at the ESA ministerial conference in late November.
The initial focus of ERS will be development of a satellite system able to provide frequent high-resolution images. That system, known as the Earth Observation Government Service (EOGS), is a high priority for the European Commission, and Aschbacher mentioned last month that ESA would work with the commission on such a system.
Aschbacher said the full cost of the system has yet to be estimated. Neither ESA nor the Commission have disclosed specifics about the constellation, including the number of satellites it requires or goals for both spatial and temporal resolution.
He said the approach to the constellation will be like Copernicus, the civil Earth science satellite system run jointly by ESA and the European Commission. ESA will be responsible for the initial development, with the EU funding later phases. The European Commission is currently limited in what it can fund regarding new space systems until its next multiannual financial framework, a seven-year plan, begins in 2028.
He estimated ESA’s first phase, with some number of optical and radar imaging satellites with onboard processing capabilities along with a ground segment, to cost on the order of one billion euros ($1.16 billion). He added that ESA’s overall package of programs for the ministerial has a current estimated cost of 23 billion euros.
“This is the level of size that we’re discussing with the member states right now,” he said. “This is, as with all our program proposals, in evolution, so the figures may be different in October, they may be different in November.”
EOGS, he noted, is a term used by the Commission and may be changed to something “more poetic.” It will be part of a “system of systems” that will include a new low Earth orbit positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) system as well as the IRIS² secure connectivity constellation.
The ESA Council meeting included a speech by Andrius Kubilius, the European commissioner for defense and space. In his prepared remarks, he cited the need for all-weather imaging capabilities with a temporal resolution of 30 minutes, compared to the once-daily imaging currently offered by European systems.
He said that the commission will produce a “High-level User Requirements Document” by this fall outlining the requirements of EOGS. That document “will constitute a political mandate towards ESA” for the system.
In his prepared remarks, Kubilius said the commission was working well with ESA on planning for the system. “I have an excellent cooperation with the ESA Director-General. We have set up a joint task force. Our teams work closely so that we can optimize resources and link initiatives.”
Aschbacher also mentioned close cooperation between ESA and the commission at the briefing, such as the work of the joint task force. He compared its early development to work setting up Copernicus between ESA and the commission two decades ago. “I see a lot of parallels coming up now in making sure that you can work between these two institutions in a good way,” he said. “If there is a will, there is a way, and if both parties are committed to it, then we can make it work with all the complications that will arise along the way.”
One of those complications will be that not all ESA member states are EU members. That could pose issues as the EU takes a more aggressive stance in defense. Kubilius’s speech, for example, emphasized the need for Europe to build up its defense capabilities, including space systems, in response to threats from Russia and perceptions that the United States is shifting its focus from Europe to the Asia-Pacific region.
Switzerland is one of the countries that is a member of ESA but not the EU. Renato Krpoun, head of the Swiss Space Office and chair of the ESA Council, emphasized at the briefing the importance of cooperation between ESA and the European Commission and the urgency of the new program.
“Of course, the devil lies in the details,” he added. “But I think, as the member states have shown in the past, they always find compromises in the interest of Europe.”
