WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency has released a strategy for its next 15 years that includes a greater emphasis on autonomy amid broader geopolitical changes.
ESA released March 20 its Strategy 2040, a document that outlines the major goals and objectives for ESA for the next 15 years, “ensuring that space serves Europe in the most impactful and strategic way possible,” as the document states. The ESA Council formally adopted the strategy at a meeting that concluded the same day.
Strategy 2040 includes five goals: protect our planet and climate, explore and discover, strengthen European autonomy and resilience, boost European growth and competitiveness, and inspire Europe. Each goal has several specific objectives.
Adopting the strategy “was a very important step because it really provides a stable, long-term vision and strategy for the European Space Agency for the decades to come,” Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, said at a media briefing after the ESA Council meeting. The strategy will guide planning for ESA’s next ministerial conference, scheduled for November, where member states will approve and fund specific programs for the next three years.
While the strategy mentions international cooperation in topics such as exploration, it also highlights the need for European nations to work with one another. “In many cases, this implementation will require strong and intensified cooperation among the different actors in the European space ecosystem,” the strategy states, which includes ESA member states, the European Union, and other European companies and organization.
That was emphasized in the goal on European autonomy and resilience, with a focus on space transportation: “The agency is dedicated to strengthening Europe by addressing the key societal needs of autonomy and resilience. A first key pillar in this regard is having guaranteed autonomous and competitive access to and mobility in space, free from external dependencies.”
That effort is a “medium- to long-term prospect,” Aschbacher said at the briefing, but acknowledged near-term geopolitical issues. “We did have, indeed, a long discussion” at the ESA Council meeting on what he termed the “geopolitical aspects that are requiring Europe to be stronger and also more independent.”
That may reshape the package of programs ESA will present to its members for the November ministerial. That includes “early studies in order to scope and to see what is required to strengthen Europe and make Europe more autonomous and more independent.”
He said member states have asked ESA to look at where the package being developed for the ministerial “may need to be reinforced or may need to be readjusted in order to better respond to the current situation,” but did not go into detail.
He didn’t discuss the specific geopolitical concerns, but his comments come as Europe reacts to moves by the new Trump administration that have reshaped the transatlantic partnership and increased tensions between European nations and the United States, particularly in defense.
Aschbacher said he was unaware of any changes to NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration campaign, on which Europe is a major partner, providing the service module for the Orion spacecraft and elements of the lunar Gateway.
“We have not received any notification that this will not be required,” he said of European contributions to Artemis. “We are delivering. We are preparing our elements of this cooperation as planned.”
He added that he had not yet met with Jared Isaacman, the nominee to be NASA administrator, but that when he does “I will reassure our American friends and partners that we have a strong, good cooperation which is to the benefit of both parties and, yes, Europe will continue to deliver as we have always done.”
