“We have to catch up on manned flights”
The informal meeting of European ministers responsible for space which has just been held in Toulouse referred to announcements which set a ceiling in terms of the autonomy of the use of space and by tracing the contours of the future of European policy on space exploration.
It ended with speeches by French President Emmanuel Macron and ESA Director Josef Aschbacher, who stressed that the Earth observation program Copernicus justify the use of space to better monitor and manage our planet. They also discussed the European Commission’s projects relating to the establishment of a European constellation of connectivity and the definition of common rules for the management of space traffic. We will come back to it.
In terms of manned flights, if Emmanuel Macron has not made a speech” at the Kennedy who had promised the Moon to the Americans, he called on Europe to better define its ambition in the field of exploration and raise the question of independent access to space.
Regarding exploration, and in a context where several countries have announced their intention toinstaller permanently on the Moon and initiate the first missions to Mars, the President of the French Republic announced the creation of a group of European experts who will give their opinion on the future of robotic and human exploration. This panel of experts therefore does not aim to “build” a manned space transport system but to reflect on the possible options in terms of exploration and manned flight and the solutions that could be implemented. This group will be set up during the ESA council scheduled for March and will be made up of around ten members, all from outside ESA. They won’t be technocrats or politicians, but a diversity of talents…
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