Emmanuel Macron wants a European decision in the fall on manned flights

How does Europe view space? Emmanuel Macron called on Wednesday, February 16, the Europeans to make known their proposals for manned flights and space exploration so that a decision whether or not to engage Europe on this path is taken in the fall.

“What should be the respective share of manned and robotic flights, especially for flights to the Moon or Mars?”he wondered, during a meeting of European Ministers responsible for Space, at the European Space Agency in Toulouse, as part of the French Presidency of the European Union.

Faced with the rush for the Moon and the emergence of private players in manned flight, the European space community is campaigning for Europe to acquire its own means to send astronauts into space, without depending on a barter used so far with the Russians or the Americans. This would require significant investments for a constrained European space budget.

“For us Europeans, the viable space model is not that of exploitation, is not that of an increase in the number of space tourists (…) any more than the only horizon is exploitation mining of the moonhe judged, recalling that space is a “common good useful to all”. “We Europeans believe more in exploration, in knowledge and therefore in long-term human spaceflight rather than in the commodification of space”, he added.