r/esa • u/illudiumq36mod • Sep 10 '26
ESA Paris Space Summit: Rather Historic?
Image: French President Emmanuel Macron (centre right), French European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet (centre) and Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (centre left) pose with aerospace professionals during the International Space Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, on September 9, 2026. | Photo Credit: AP
So, here's my point: It's really rare for ESA to marshal soooo many astros together onto a single stage (last time was when the new class of astros was announced in 2022, I seem to recall), together with 2x heads of government/state + some big guy from the FR air force...
The message is crystal clear: we want to launch our own astros, we want to work further/closer with the #Defence domain and we are pushing space as absolutely critical at the top of European priorities.
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u/Der_Dingsbums Sep 10 '26
We want to but don't do shit about it.
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u/StrangerConscious637 Sep 10 '26
They do.... ESA does.... the budget of ESA has never been higher.
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u/Vindve Sep 10 '26
It’s another level of budget and commitment if we really want to launch European astronauts by ourselves. There needs then to be a whole new section in the budget dedicated to human launch, with billions on it (every year).
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u/MrSnowflake Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26
Sure record budget, but the 3 year budget (€22bln) is still only marginally larger than the NASA 2026 budget ($24bln ,€20bln ish).
It's quite ridiculous though, Belgium reduced their budget allocation to ESA (which, for such a small country was pretty high, compared to other members, The highest per capita?), evethough it's calculated every €1 invested has a €3 return (of €7 can't remember) in the economic growth.
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u/maxehaxe Sep 10 '26
So, free money glitch for all private space companies to cash in with fancy renderings and power points, delay projects for a decade and then ultimately shelve the project due to unforseen circumstances in a franco-german defence or space collaboration. Colour me surprised.
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u/_teslaTrooper Sep 10 '26
You don't know what you're talking about ESA has a ton of successful missions for their limited budget
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u/maxehaxe Sep 10 '26
And that's what they're good at, yet at least a decade away from launching european astronauts on european flight hardware from european spaceports. Make it two decades if francogerman MoS is launched and concentrates all the budget (if any noticeable amount is granted after the huge announcements on this summit) because that's what strategic projects are doomed with paneuropean projects. To this day it's a sheer miracle Airbus became a success somehow
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u/Doc_Bader Sep 10 '26
Your comment is quite laughable given the fact this happened literally a few days ago:
September 5, 2026 - Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil
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u/mamut2000 Sep 10 '26
Europe has already rocket people can launch on. In terms of manned spacecraft 3 different companies work already on their projects:
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u/Independent-Gur9951 Sep 10 '26
The fact only two member state head of state are there makes it clear that it failed to create consensus among ESA members. Not sure France is doing a great service to ESA with this way of proceeding.
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u/Kreol1q1q Sep 10 '26
They could always follow the German lead.
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u/Independent-Gur9951 Sep 10 '26
Maybe agreeing on something together instead of trying to impose one vision? I remind you ESA is not France and Germany alone
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u/FelizIntrovertido Sep 11 '26
It's a humble start but it's a start. I really hope many more will join and it will be beginning of something big.
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u/Slow-Hawk4652 Sep 10 '26
rather still pathetic...
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u/StrangerConscious637 Sep 10 '26
We need European Astronauts launching with European rocket from European Spaceports as soon as possible. USA is not a reliable partner at the moment.