Space Innovation vs EU Regulation: What’s at Stake for Europe’s Future?
Plus: UK’s new military satellite, updates from Europe’s rocket companies, ESA’s latest projects, and top space job openings.
Welcome to Aerospace Insider 🚀
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: the UK’s building another spy satellite, ESA delays Ariane 6 launch and a new record is set in Europe
💼 Top Space Jobs: Don’t miss out on the latest job opportunities—your next big break might be here!
🔍 Deep Dive: The EU Space Law: how will this shape the future of Europe’s space industry?
Aerospace Weekly Roundup
Catch the latest European space industry highlights you can't afford to miss!
🛰️ UK’s Ministry of Defence Awards £40M Contract for Military Satellite
The UK Ministry of Defence has awarded SSTL a £40M contract to build Juno, a new reconnaissance satellite set to launch in 2027. Juno will capture detailed daytime Earth images, enhancing the UK’s space-based military intelligence alongside Tyche, which launched in 2023. This contract strengthens the UK’s growing satellite surveillance capabilities.
🧑🚀 Czech Republic Partners with Vast on Future Spaceflight Projects
The Czech Ministry of Transport has signed an agreement with Vast to explore collaboration on future human spaceflight missions. This includes private astronaut missions to the ISS before its 2030 retirement or missions to Vast’s upcoming Haven space stations. The deal follows Vast’s MoU with ESA last July to provide European countries with access to space through its stations.
🚀 Ariane 6’s First Commercial Flight Delayed to February 2025
Ariane 6’s first commercial flight, initially scheduled for late 2024, has been delayed to February 2025. While the rocket's first launch in July was deemed successful despite an anomaly with the Auxiliary Power Unit during the final firing of the upper stage. The delay comes from this non-critical issue that Arianespace has resolved. The next flight will carry the CSO-3 spy satellite for the French Armed Forces into orbit. So far, Berger’s law remains unbroken.
🛫 Polaris Spaceplanes Completes Historic MIRA II Rocket Test
Polaris Spaceplanes’ latest flight demonstrator, MIRA II, has successfully ignited and operated its 1 kN LOX/kerosene linear aerospike engine in flight, making it the first aerospace vehicle to achieve this milestone. Their next flight campaigns aim to extend engine operation range and vehicle capabilities. Meanwhile, the team is already working on their 7 metre supersonic prototype, NOVA. The video is worth watching.
⚡ ENPULSION Secures €4 Million to Advance Cutting-Edge Space Propulsion
ENPULSION has secured a €4M contract with the European Space Agency to advance its NextGen MICRO R³ thruster. This contract will focus on enhancing the thruster’s performance and expanding its commercialisation worldwide.
Space Jobs Spotlight 🔍
Curated roles to accelerate your career in Europe’s thriving space sector.
🧑💻 Join the CASSINI Hackathon: Innovate for the Future of Space!
The CASSINI Hackathon is happening from 22-24 November, bringing together creative minds to solve real-world space challenges. It’s a great opportunity to collaborate and contribute to the future of space innovation. Register here.
Now back to the real jobs spotlight ⬇️
🚀 Internships & Graduates
ESA has opened 147 internships across all fields: aerospace, software, physics, economics, strategy, policy, marketing… (Can’t include them all here, sorry) Better go check them out. 🇪🇺
Electronic Design and PCB Layout Intern — The Exploration Company (Munich 🇩🇪)
Software Engineer Intern — Viasat (London 🇬🇧)
Young Graduate Trainee in Space Law — ESA (Paris 🇫🇷)
💼 Space Jobs (ranked by experience)
Engineer Development Program — Canadian Space Agency (Quebec 🇨🇦)
Space Systems Engineer — SATLANTIS (Bilbao 🇪🇸)
Optical Communications Engineer — ARQUIMEA (Tenerife 🇪🇸)
Test Engineer — ENPULSION (Vienna 🇦🇹)
Mechanical Engineer — SSTL (Guildford 🇬🇧)
Flight Test Engineer — POLARIS Spaceplanes (Peenemünde 🇩🇪)
Electric Propulsion System Engineer — ENPULSION (Vienna 🇦🇹)
Thermal Engineer — SSTL (Guildford 🇬🇧)
System Analysis Principal Engineer — ESA (Noordwijk 🇳🇱)
Head of Innovation — ThrustMe (Île-de-France 🇫🇷)
🎓 PhD Opportunities
Aerospace Engineering PhD — University of Glasgow 🇬🇧
Last week’s poll resulted in a tie for the deep dive topic (startup analysis vs EU Space Law) so I had to choose myself. Read it if you missed it.
The EU Space Law: Innovation or Overregulation?
The EU Space Law aims to create a common framework for security, safety and sustainability across the continent. By establishing this general standard, the EU aims to address rising concerns over space debris, space traffic management and the protection of essential satellite infrastructure.
The EU's motivation is clear: space technology is strategically important, and a strong European space industry would reduce dependence on other countries. The EU Space Law is expected to help Europe’s space industry better compete in the global space race.
The EU Space Law aims to establish a common framework for security, competitiveness, and regulatory harmonisation across Europe. By addressing key challenges in the space industry, it aims to create a safer, more sustainable space environment. Let’s break down each point:
Security and safety are essential in an industry where satellites and space hardware are becoming critical to all aspects of our lives: from basic telecommunications to disaster and emergency response. A unified approach could help reduce space hazards and ensure Europe can protect its space assets as the industry grows.
Competitiveness in the global space economy is becoming a increasingly difficult for Europe. The space race started years ago and it seems only now Europe is realising its late to the game. Reducing regulatory barriers is fundamental for European companies to compete in globally. The US is innovating fast, with SpaceX leading the race; and China impact is only expected to increase.
Harmonisation is the big promise and the big challenge. The EU aims to harmonise regulations across 27 countries:
good luck.Getting all the EU member states to agree on the EU Space Law will be challenging, given their different space ambitions. We will come back to this topic again.
Looking to the big players of the industry, some argue that it is flexibility what’s been critical to their success. Looser regulatory constraints in the US have allowed for rapid innovation across all fields of space technology. Although the US also have their regulatory gems 😎
Will a single, standard EU law foster similar breakthroughs in Europe or will it end up limiting companies’ ability to innovate quickly? If this new framework becomes overly rigid or protectionist, there’s a real risk European startups will look for business outside of the EU.
Regulatory harmonisation sounds of course ideal. But there’s a fine line between creating the perfect set of rules and stifling innovation. Just look at the AI Act: great intentions, not-so-great results.
On this topic, consider the companies leading the global AI race: where are they from? In generative AI, European companies are simply falling behind (and are considered to be in the 3rd league). It’s true that US had 4 times more funding than EU for AI but the question remains: has the AI Act helped European companies stay competitive?
If it has not, then we should be asking if the EU Space Law will lead to the same results.
But not all is lost. Regulations should protect European interests without constraining companies’ ability to respond to new challenges and opportunities that arise in the market. Perhaps instead of rigid, one-size-fits-all-and-everyone rules, the EU could explore more dynamic frameworks that encourage innovation in the space sector.
As Europe defines its space future, it has an opportunity to bet on innovation and growth. But the EU’s goal is clear: a unified space law to keep the sector safe, competitive and strong.
Will this framework (sounds better, right?) truly help Europe’s space industry or will it be yet another regulatory barrier companies and startups have to overcome? Is this the right step to take now…? What do you think?
We can only wait and see what the outcome of the EU Space Law will be. For starters, it already comes late, luckily 😉
Poll of the Week
Quick Reads
ESA aims to recover a rocket stage using a parafoil system. Learn more.
Latitude appoints new CEO. Meet her.
SpaceX will use Dragon to demonstrate reboost the ISS. Read it.
ESA’s Hera mission completes first critical manoeuvre. Check it out.
Open Cosmos expands operations in Portugal. Read more.
Former Intelsat president joins Lynk Global as CEO. Not a bad change.
SES releases Q3 financial results. Check them out.
Starship next launch could be as early as next week 🤯 Save the date.
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To your success,
Jaime