SpaceX vs. Europe: the challenges of competing in a fragmented market
Plus: Europe's new SpaceX rival raises funding, new supersonic flight, 48th nation joins the Artemis accords 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: European SpaceX rival makes the headlines and record breaking flight. Expect a Starship launch very soon!
💼 Top Space Jobs: Don’t miss out on the latest job opportunities—your next big break might be here!
🔍 Deep Dive: Can really Europe compete against SpaceX? Why is Europe falling behind?
Aerospace Weekly Roundup
Catch the latest European space industry highlights you can't afford to miss!
💰 European SpaceX rival raises $160M in series B funding
The Exploration Company raised €152M in new funding to continue the development of their Nyx reusable spacecraft, bringing the total funding to approximately €210M. Founded only three years ago, Nyx is designed to launch from any heavy-lift rocket, transport 3000kg of cargo to and from the ISS and reduce operating costs by 25%. Nyx’s first flight is expected to happen in 2028.
✈️ Dawn Aerospace completes first supersonic flight
Dawn Aerospace, a company developing hypersonic spaceplane, successfully completed the first flight of its Mk-II Aurora spaceplane, reaching a speed of Mach 1.1 and an altitude of 25km. This makes it the first civil aircraft to fly supersonic since the Concorde. And have beaten some other records along the way. Check the flight video.
🇩🇰 Denmark signs the Artemis Accords
With this signature, Denmark becomes the 48th country to join the accords, which outline best practices for sustainable space exploration. With this move, Denmark “seeks to strengthen ties with our allies such as the United States.” Meanwhile, China is pushing its International Lunar Research Station, which Senegal signed to join in September, becoming the 13th country to do so.
🛰️ Ubotica partners with NanoAvionics for autonomous satellites
Ubotica and NanoAvionics have teamed up to bring advanced AI technology to Earth Observation satellites. Their collaboration will offer customers in-orbit AI tools, like cloud removal and data compression, improving efficiency and enabling real-time insights for missions. This partnership aims to revolutionise real-time satellite capabilities.
🚀 Starship flight 6 can happen today
SpaceX is targeting a potential Starship test flight today, November 19, from Starbase, Texas. Flight 6 will have the same flight profile as last flight but with some additional tests: Raptor engine reignition in space, a new heat shield and some manoeuvre changes for the upper stage. Get ready for a potential booster catch. Watch here.
Space Jobs Spotlight 🔍
Curated roles to accelerate your career in Europe’s thriving space sector.
🚀 Internships & Graduates
Join ESA’s Space Weather Training Course — ESA (Redu 🇧🇪)
147+ ESA internships — ESA (Europe 🇪🇺)
Electric Propulsion Engineer Intern — ThrustMe (Ile-de-France 🇫🇷)
Project Management Intern — Dawn Aerospace (Delft 🇨🇭)
💼 Space Jobs (ranked by experience)
Thermal Engineer — Lunar Outpost (Foetz 🇱🇺)
Spacecraft Operations Engineer — NorthStar Earth & Space (Luxembourg 🇱🇺)
Satellite Operations Engineer — Sateliot (Barcelona 🇪🇸)
Systems Engineer (RAMS) — Orbex (Forres 🇬🇧)
Materials & Processes Engineer — Beyond Gravity (Zurich 🇨🇭)
AIT Specialist — Dawn Aerospace (Delft 🇨🇭)
Avionics V&V Engineer — PLD Space (Elche 🇪🇸)
Astrodynamics Specialist — Vyoma (Munich 🇩🇪)
Propulsion Test Engineer — Orbex (Copenhagen 🇩🇰)
Operations Manager — Lúnasa Space (London 🇬🇧)
🎓 PhD Opportunities
PhD on AI & Robotics — The University of Manchester 🇬🇧
PhD on AI & Cubesats (with scholarship) — University of South Australia 🇦🇺
PhD on Reentry Dynamics (with scholarship) — University of Southern Queensland 🇦🇺
Like these jobs or think something is missing? Hit ‘reply’ and let me know!
In case you missed it ⬇️
🧑💻 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. Deadline to register is coming soon. Register here.
SpaceX vs. Europe: the challenges of competing in a fragmented market
Last week I posted a news article in which Airbus’ CEO explained that SpaceX would not pass Europe’s anti-trust laws.
This sparked some intense debate in my network so I thought we could dive into this topic deeper.
Fragmentation: Europe’s unique challenge
The first point is to understand what Europe is and is not. Europe is not a single country like the US. Plus, what do we call Europe when we talk about space: the European Union or the European Space Agency?
Unlike the US, which has NASA as its central space agency, Europe operates as a fragmented system. Let’s consider ESA to be Europe’s “central” space agency. ESA has to coordinate efforts across its 22 member states, but each member state has its own nacional priorities and space ambitions and, let’s call them, political interests1. This fragmentation first of all significantly slows decision making and leads to duplication of efforts across all levels.
But this is not all. Years ago, the European Commission created the European Union Agency for the Space Programme, EUSPA. Yes, a different space agency to ESA. The EU’s intention was to integrate ESA as it’s own space agency by 2014… (spoiler alert: it never happened). What happened in the end was that the EU decided to keep both alive, each focussed on slightly different areas. Talk about efficiency…
This adds another layer of bureaucracy, regulations, funding dilution, and potential conflicts of interest, hindering Europe’s ability to compete with NASA’s unified structure. This fragmentation makes defining and executing a unified, long-term strategy much harder.
This challenge is further increased by the funding comparison between the US and Europe. Regarding public funding, last year’s NASA budget was nearly $25B while ESA received $7.8B, which is 30% of NASA’s budget despite being the highest funding ESA ever received. And the same happens with private investment and venture capital: European space companies raise far lower funding than their US counterparts.
Understanding SpaceX’s dominance
SpaceX’s success, in contrast to this ecosystem of organisations and layers, comes from its ability to move fast and break fast, to innovate rapidly and vertically integrate all its operations: from designing reusable rockets to launching and operating its Starlink constellation.
They have managed both to
reduce costs and therefore lower the prices for their customers and
significantly increase their profit margins, which increases their ability to keep growing.
And along the way has received vital support from NASA and the US Department of Defence. Why doesn’t Europe follow NASA’s footsteps?
Europe’s main player, Arianespace, simply can’t compete on cost and technology. Ariane 6 development comes late to the party. After SpaceX recovered its first Falcon 9 in December 2015 (9 years ago already…), shouldn’t have Europe (ESA, EUSPA, the EC or whoever) at least considered to do the same? Well, fast forward 9 years and the Ariane 6 has only launched once and SpaceX has developed and flown their Starship rocket and recovered the main booster (remember this?). FYI, Starship main booster is larger than the Ariane 6 full rocket. I find it quite amusing.
SpaceX operates as a single entity and keeps control on all they do. But European companies, even the main players, have to coordinate across multiple countries and partners and therefore navigate the regulation maze.
The role of anti-trust laws
But let’s go back to the topic in question: what about the anti-trust regulations that Airbus’ CEO mentioned?
Europe’s anti trust laws are designed to prevent monopolies and ensure fair competition. These rules, when implemented correctly, are great for the consumers and are instrumental in creating a diverse and competitive market. But one wonders if the existing implementation of these rules are best suited for the space industry, where scale and vertical integration matters a lot.
This is what Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury questions. As we covered in a previous issue, Airbus and Thales are considering merging their space divisions to create a European space giant which, they claim, could be able to compete with rising players in the US and grow Europe’s influence on the global space market.
Although wether or not this approach is the best for that is debatable (I personally have my doubts with this merger in particular, especially given the overall market status and distribution in Europe), he makes a valid point. Europe must change.
What’s the deal anyways?
To stay competitive, Europe needs to rethink it’s approach to space policy (and all policy, for that matter) and regulation. Some points could include:
Foster private investment: the EU should incentivise venture capital investment in space startups to create a more alive innovation ecosystem.
Encourage consolidation: I’m not sure an Airbus-Thales merger is the best for the industry. But Europe should stop fearing having a big player in a specific field and, in my opinion, should choose one or two companies to fund instead of wanting to have all the companies receive some funding. If they work, then we can worry about supporting the competition later… Choose this instead of diluting funding among many players. Building a competitive space company is not cheap.
Increase public-private partnerships: Europe should follow NASA’s collaboration approach to support space companies. It helps promote innovation while financially supporting private industry moves.
Regulatory reform: before even considering anti-trust laws, Europe should streamline it’s regulations. There’s just too much bureaucracy, public interfaces and unclear, conflicting interests. This is difficult given the nature of Europe (it’s not a single country) but the current situation could definitely be improved.
Europe doesn’t lack the talent or technology to become a major player the space race. But to do so, it should change its current modus operandi, to promote more risk-taking and innovation. As the space race enters a new era (hello, Starship), Europe must stop being an observer and join the race. Otherwise it risks falling behind.
Poll of the Week
In other news
PLD Space SPARK programme still open. Launch with them.
The US DoD bets on point to point cargo delivery. Read more.
FCC sets rule on megaconstellation spectrum rules. This affects us all.
RocketLab gets first Neutron customer. Expect a flight in late 2025.
We might have another lunar landing attempt soon. Save the date.
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To your success,
Jaime
The potential Airbus-Thales merger could also spur the German government to send more business OHB’s way to “maintain, at the very least, a competitive duopoly in Europe”, according to OHB’s CEO.
Very informative article