The final shape of the Horizon R&D partnership aiming to boost EU competitiveness in space is close to being agreed, but the scaled down ambition has disappointed the industry. “We missed a big opportunity to really change the space industrial settings in Europe,” said Pierre Lionnet, research director at the industry association Eurospace.
The EU is to set up its own low-earth orbit quantum-encrypted satellite communications system, with the European Commission pushing industry and member states to get to work on the €6 billion project as early as next year.
Small and medium sized companies in the space sector want better tailored support for scale up of research and are calling on the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Commission to help them in closing the gap between innovation and the large multibillion euro projects around which the industry has traditionally been structured.