The US-led crewed return to the Moon, pairing the SLS rocket and Orion capsule with commercial landers and a 68-nation governance framework.
Europe's sovereign-launch capability, built around ESA, ArianeGroup, and Arianespace, centers on Ariane 6, the continent's sole operational heavy-lift rocket, flying from Kourou, French Guiana.
The EU's global navigation satellite system, built for European autonomy from US GPS, now the world's most accurate civilian GNSS and a pillar of European strategic independence.
The fourth planet from the Sun and primary destination for robotic exploration, Mars anchors an intensifying US-China race to return the first samples to Earth.
The only large-scale Western non-Starlink LEO broadband constellation, formed by the 2023 France-UK merger driving Europe's sovereign satellite strategy.
The progressive crowding of Earth's orbital shells, primarily low-Earth orbit, by satellites and debris, raising collision risk globally and threatening a shared orbital commons.
Orbiting debris from US, Chinese, Russian, and European launches crowds low Earth orbit shells, raising collision risk for active satellites and requiring new national and international removal standards.
The set of rules, tracking systems, and coordination processes governments use to manage orbital objects and prevent collisions, with no binding international regime in place.
Upgraded P160C boosters and an Amazon contract give Europe a working, if thin, sovereign launch base
Rising avoidance manoeuvres, a $25.8–42.3B decade cost, and a 95% disposal-compliance bar to avert cascade
€960M equity raise, €2.3B for 440 OneWeb follow-ons, €10.6B IRIS² concession, but services slip to 2030