Europe’s dependence on America in space is hard to escape

This month Ukrainian drones’ Starlink links cut out above 160kph and Russian missiles hit Kyiv without the usual American spy-satellite warnings. After Ukraine said Starlink restrictions had been imposed, Eutelsat shares jumped 23%, the EU moved to speed approval of merging three big aerospace firms’ satellite businesses, and on 19 October four large European telecoms firms said they want to partner with a satellite company to rival Starlink. The article identifies three dependencies on America: satellite internet, space-based intelligence/surveillance and early warning, and launch. OneWeb (Eutelsat, part-owned by France and Britain) has about 600 satellites against Starlink’s 10,000+, and its cheapest terminals cost about $9,000, roughly 45 times a basic Starlink one; Kaja Kallas says Europe can’t replace Starlink in the short term. The EU’s €15bn IRIS2 (348 satellites) launches its first only in 2029, and Germany plans 100 military satellites for about €10bn, raising duplication concerns. Surveillance is more encouraging: Finland’s Iceye has 80 radar satellites in orbit and plans to double production to 100 next year, and Sweden launched its first spy satellite this year. Caveats: a Russian satellite manoeuvred close to an Iceye satellite in mid-October, French and German missile-warning satellites arrive only in the early 2030s, and many Iceye and OneWeb satellites flew on SpaceX, with a capacity squeeze looming as Falcon 9 is retired; ESA has a €900m launcher challenge. Eurospace’s Olivier Lemaitre says steady demand is needed for scale. A companion leader (“Europe must escape its reliance on American satellites”) argues the policy case—fixed-price launch contracts, three rocket startups awarded ESA contracts, pooled demand and Iceye’s “federated model”—and is not counted separately.