The first day of the summit is devoted to a meeting of ministers from the 22 ESA member states, which includes most European Union nations as well as the UK, Switzerland and Norway. Tuesday will be dedicated to a joint EU-ESA meeting.
The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) was speaking at the start of two days of ministerial talks in Seville, Spain, on efforts to shore up Europe s faltering launcher programmes and galvanise human and robotic exploration activities.
Europe has carved out a leading role in climate observation, navigation and space science but has not targeted a prime role in human exploration, opting instead for a junior role in projects led by US space agency NASA or until recently Russia.