Is Europe About to Get a New Space Giant?
This week: IRIS² takes the stage, Reaction Engines bids farewell, and top job opportunities in Europe’s space sector await!
Welcome to the Aerospace Insider community 🚀
In this week’s issue, we’re diving into the latest and greatest from Europe’s booming space sector. Big things are happening!
Today’s summary:
🚀 Aerospace News: Europe bets on broadband constellation, AVIO expanding to the US and ESA wants reusable rocket technology.
💼 Top Space Jobs: Don’t miss out on the latest job opportunities—your next big break might be here!
🔍 Deep Dive: What does the potential merger of Airbus and Thales mean for the aerospace industry?
Aerospace Weekly Roundup
If you’re keeping tabs on Europe’s booming space sector, here’s what you need to know this week.
🛰️ The European Commission bet against Starlink & OneWeb
The European Commission has awarded the SpaceRISE consortium a 12-year contract to develop and operate IRIS², a secure connectivity satellite system aiming to increase Europe’s resilience in space. Led by SES, Eutelsat, and Hispasat, the project will deploy over 290 satellites by 2030 to provide secure government and commercial services across Europe.
🇺🇸 AVIO to Establish First US Solid Rocket Motor Facility
Italian aerospace firm AVIO is planning a new US facility by 2028 to meet rising defence and space demands. Partnering with ACMI Properties, they aim to boost rocket motor production and strengthen US supply capabilities. A smart move to diversify amid greater competition in the launcher market.
🚀 ESA Accelerates European Reusable Rocket Development
ESA has awarded Rocket Factory Augsburg, The Exploration Company, ArianeGroup, and Isar Aerospace contracts under its THRUST! and BEST! initiatives to push European reusability in space transportation. These projects aim to advance high-thrust engines and reusable boosters, with milestones expected by 2025.
🌞 ESA’s Proba-3 Mission Heads to India for a December launch
Launching this December, ESA's Proba-3 aims to demonstrate the world’s first precision formation flying with two satellites. Together, they will form a 144-meter solar coronagraph to study the Sun's corona like never before, advancing our understanding of solar phenomena while pioneering new satellite positioning technologies.
💼 Reaction Engines goes into administration
Reaction Engines has entered administration after struggling to secure funding. Known for its groundbreaking SABRE engine and hypersonic technology, this loss is a blow to the industry, especially given the potential applications of its advanced IP in defence, space, and aviation.
Space Jobs Spotlight 🔍
Curated roles to accelerate your career in Europe’s thriving space sector, with a special focus on job opportunities at the companies awarded the IRIS² project, along with other exciting positions across the industry.
🚀 Internships & Gradudates
Supply Chain Intern (Satellites) — Airbus (Toulouse 🇫🇷)
Thermal Engineering Intern — Airbus (Toulouse 🇫🇷)
Satellite Operations Intern — Hispasat (Madrid 🇪🇸)
Graduate Aerospace Engineer — NewOrbit Space (Reading 🇬🇧)
Graduate Mechanical Engineer — Leonardo (Basildon 🇬🇧)
💼 Space Jobs (ranked by experience)
Telecommunications Engineer — FOSSA Systems (Madrid 🇪🇸)
Aerospace Engineer — NewOrbit Space (Reading 🇬🇧)
Ground Support Engineer — OneWeb (London 🇬🇧)
Mission and Satellite Design Engineer — NewOrbit Space (Reading 🇬🇧)
Software Engineer — OHB SE (Bremen 🇩🇪)
Ground Segment Engineer — Hisdesat (Madrid 🇪🇸)
Subsystem Engineer — Telespazio (Oberpfaffenhofen 🇩🇪)
Fleet Operations Engineer — Eutelsat (London 🇬🇧)
Operations Engineer — Hisdesat (Madrid 🇪🇸)
GEO Spacecraft Controller — Telespazio (Oberpfaffenhofen 🇩🇪)
Senior Ground Systems Engineer — SES (Betzdorf 🇱🇺)
Senior System Engineer — Hispasat (Ruppichteroth 🇩🇪)
Satellite Payload Engineer — Eutelsat (London 🇬🇧)
✨ NewOrbit Space is hiring across several areas. If you have been laid off from Reaction Engines, check roles here.
🎓 PhD Opportunities
Aerospace Engineering PhD — San Diego State University 🇺🇸
Airbus and Thales merger: what does this mean for Europe?
Airbus and Thales are exploring merging their space operations to become the dominant player in Europe’s space sector.
This move comes at a critical time for Europe, which is seeing how the US, with SpaceX leading the race, is taking over the launch market (in case you’ve lived under a rock for the past month: hello, Starship)1 and shaking up the telecommunications industry with Starlink, which is now used in 112 countries.
By potentially joining forces, Airbus and Thales hope to boost Europe’s position in the global space race, addressing both the immediate challenges and long-term opportunities.
Opportunities
Strengthen Europe’s space industry: a major merger could boost European capabilities and position it as a stronger player in the global space market.
Counter US dominance: Competing with American giants like SpaceX may require a consolidated European powerhouse able to (partially) match their scale.
Stabilise struggling divisions: both companies could offset recent space business losses (2500 and 1300 space jobs, in numbers), increase efficiencies and potentially secure long-term stability.
Foster innovation and competitiveness: some argue this could lead to more ambitious projects and an increase in R&D otherwise out of reach for each company alone.
Challenges
Reduced competition: one less big prime contractor available. This could “kill” smaller prime contractors. Other European countries might want to maintain other companies alive.
Dominance concerns: a merged entity could become the de-facto prime contractor for European space initiatives. Would all countries in Europe be ok with this?
Regulatory hurdles (surprise, surprise): a merger of this size and in Europe will face scrutiny from the European Commission and the governments of France, Italy and Germany. Good luck with that.
Potential restructuring: consolidating operations and aligning supply chains would likely require significant restructuring; which could lead to pushback from unions and political entities
But then for me there’s one question that still remains: is being a larger company necessarily better? Reminds me on this point made by Mark Zuckerberg on how they managed to beat larger companies at building Facebook. In Europe, however, the competition with US giants requires substantial resources that only a larger entity might provide. The question is whether size alone will fuel the innovation needed in Europe’s space sector.
I used Microsoft Designer (it’s quite fun to generate AI images if you haven’t tried it) to design a logo of Airbus-Thales merger. This is what it came up with… What do you think?
What’s your opinion on the potential merge? Is it a necessary step to boost Europe’s position in the global space race or a risky move that could negatively affect our own local industry?
Poll of the Week
Quick Reads
The Australian Department of Defence pulls back from a $12M contract to build military GEO constellation awarded to Lockheed Martin. Read the statement.
Blue Origin takes New Glenn for a walk—and it’s now rolling onto the launch pad to prepare for its first hot fire test. See the pictures.
Lockheed Martin completes acquisition of Terran Orbital for $450M. Read more.
Apple invests $1.5B to fund new Globalstar satellite constellation. Check it out.
China unveils heavy lift rocket, and it’s just like SpaceX’s Starship 🤦♂️ See for yourself.
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To your success,
Jaime
We might soon be saying the same of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, which might fly before the end of the year. Europe, get ready.