European governments are preparing to decide whether they want the ability to send astronauts into space using European-built systems. The issue will come before ministers at a European Space Agency meeting in Rome on Dec. 15, although approving the idea would only be the beginning of a much longer process.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher has described a project that would cover nearly everything needed for a human spaceflight mission. Europe would need a spacecraft for the crew, a rocket to launch it, emergency equipment, mission control operations and systems for safely bringing astronauts home.
That makes the choice facing ministers larger than whether Europe should build another space capsule. It is really about whether European countries want to take responsibility for the full trip instead of depending on outside transportation for some of the most important parts.
Money will not be settled at the Rome meeting. Ministers are being asked first whether ESA should move ahead with the idea, and countries could make their financial commitments later through the agency’s normal funding system. The full program would take years to develop if it receives political support.
Aschbacher has put the possible cost at roughly €10 billion spread over a decade. He has also estimated that relying on outside providers to carry European astronauts during a similar period would cost about half that amount.
Europe would not be starting with an empty drawing board. ESA already has projects underway involving cargo spacecraft, rockets and emergency equipment that could become useful if the agency eventually develops a system for astronauts.
One of those efforts is a European cargo spacecraft intended to travel to the International Space Station. Hundreds of millions of euros have been committed to its development, and the spacecraft is being designed in a way that leaves open the possibility of adapting the technology for people later.
ESA is also studying how astronauts could escape from a rocket during an emergency. That work is still at an early stage, but such a safety system would be one of the pieces required before Europe could launch people on its own.
Rocket development has been moving forward as well. Several European companies received ESA contracts this summer to continue developing launch vehicles, and one of the companies successfully sent a rocket into orbit from Norway in September after an earlier attempt failed.
Political support for a larger European role in space has also been building. French President Emmanuel Macron has called for Europe to develop its own cargo, lunar and eventually human transportation capabilities over the coming decade.
Those plans are part of a wider effort to give Europe more control over what it can do in space. ESA member countries backed that direction at a September summit in Paris, asking the agency to prepare choices for the upcoming meeting in Rome.
Greater independence would not mean Europe plans to operate by itself. Aschbacher has said ESA wants to remain closely involved with international partners, including the United States and Japan, while having more European capabilities available for those partnerships.
The Dec. 15 meeting comes before another full ESA ministerial gathering planned for 2028. If governments agree in Rome that Europe should pursue its own astronaut transportation system, the questions of exactly what gets built, how quickly it happens and how the costs are divided would still have to be worked out.
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