BRUSSELS (Council of the European Union PR) — Space policy can play an important role in achieving a sustainable EU economy. The Council today adopted a set of conclusions acknowledging the important contribution of space activities to the development of skills, technologies and services needed to build a society that is capable of addressing global challenges in a changing world. These include climate change, ecosystem degradation, health crises, food security and migration.
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Ministers approved funding lunar Gateway, space station operations until 2030, Mars Sample Return and Hera asteroid missions
SEVILLE, Spain (ESA PR) — ESA’s Council at Ministerial Level, Space19+, has concluded in Seville, Spain, with the endorsement of the most ambitious plan to date for the future of ESA and the whole European space sector. The meeting brought together ministers with responsibility for space activities in Europe, along with Canada and observers from the EU.
The Member States were asked to approve a comprehensive set of programmes to secure Europe’s independent access to and use of space in the 2020s, boost Europe’s growing space economy, and make breakthrough discoveries about Earth, our Solar System and the Universe beyond, all the while making the responsible choice to strengthen the efforts we are making to secure and protect our planet.
(more…)BRUSSELS (European Union PR) — The EU is designing its space policy programme for the years 2021-2027. EU ambassadors meeting in Coreper today confirmed the common understanding reached by the Romanian Presidency with the European Parliament on the draft regulation on an EU space programme.
The common understanding excludes financial and other horizontal aspects of the programme, which will depend on the future overall agreement on the next multiannual financial framework.
It’s a common enough occurrence in Hollywood : a writer completes a draft of a script and, after reading and digesting the brilliant scribe’s latest masterpiece, the producer/director/whatever ladles out immense praise. After spending the requisite amount of time building up the writer’s fragile ego so it ascends to the Olympian heights that is an Academy stage, the reviewer lays the hammer down.
“But, I do have a few notes….”
In other words, heed my pearls of wisdom and get started on the rewrite. You’ve got a lot of work to do.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has been getting very similar notes from its bigger, more powerful cousin, the European Union (EU). The union loves — just loves — ESA’s work, great stuff. However, ESA needs to do better — and it might be able to do so by coming under the control of the EU.
