Esa and Defense Ministerial: Launches (Re)Activated

The three-year budget for Esa is record-breaking. Top priority: launchers, an infrastructure historically developed solely within the Space Agency, which now sees new contenders and a leading role for Germany.

BY EMILIO COZZI AND MATTEO MARINI

On November 27, in Bremen, at the European Space Agency (ESA) Ministerial Council, the summit where member states decide programs and funding for the next three years, a new record was reached: €22.3 billion, more than 30 percent higher than the last summit in 2022, a 17 percent increase net of inflation. The effort, which Director General Josef Aschbacher said he was fully satisfied with, reflects the need to advance, if not primarily, in dual-use technologies capable of providing both military and civilian services. This necessity, it was said, is dictated by the current historical moment, Russia’s threats on Europe’s doorstep, and the awareness that the United States is no longer the reliable partner it once was.

One key point was emphasized above all: if today it is necessary to dominate space to govern the Earth, the first asset to focus on is launchers, which in recent years have shown significant criticalities. Naturally, these are assets fueled by technologies strongly tied to three countries, France, Italy, and Germany, but developed within the ESA ecosystem as part of a collective effort.

Ariane 6 and Vega C at the Forefront

Historically, space launchers have represented the largest item in ESA’s budget and in the allocations decided during the Ministerial. In the just-concluded Ministerial, the Space Transportation sector is worth €4.68 billion, 21 percent of the total subscription. Most of it will support existing programs for launchers and companies that so far have represented the only Made in Europe options to reach beyond the atmosphere: ArianeGroup with the Ariane 6 rocket, and Avio with Vega C. The funding will also be used to develop their evolutions toward higher-performance and reusable technologies.

As expected, the top three contributors to the Agency, Germany, France, and Italy, spent the most, with the German government leading: it has a five-year space plan worth €35 billion, equal to Esa’s entire budget. Ariane 6 is a launcher whose components are mainly built between French and German facilities, while its boosters, the P120C, soon to become the more powerful P160C and also forming the first stage of Vega C, are produced by Avio in Colleferro, near Rome. Paris and Berlin focused more on the former, Italy on the latter.

New Launchers: The European Competition

The good news, confirmed by recent launches in French Guiana, comes from the reliability of both launchers. It seems evident, however, that ESA member states now consider it strategic to create an ecosystem capable of encouraging competition. For this reason, among the budget lines there are funds, €900 million, more than double what the Director General proposed, for the European Launcher Challenge, the competition launched by Esa two years ago to develop new entrepreneurial initiatives and expand European space transport opportunities. Here too, Germany contributed figures far exceeding any other country: €363 million, 40 percent of the entire program and more than double that of France (€179 million), Spain (€169 million), and the United Kingdom (€144 million).

It is no coincidence that these four are the main funders: of the five startups that reached the end of the competition, those that will receive funding to test and bring future rockets to market, two are German, Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg, one French, Maiaspace, one Spanish, Pld Space, and one British, Orbex. Each government has backed its own national “flagship” company. Of the five, Isar has already ignited its engines for a first test flight, which, however, ended with a spectacular splashdown.

In the table, Italy stands out for its absence: indeed, the zero euros allocated confirm the intention to proceed with Avio, which had already received PNRR funds for technological research on new propellants and for a now well-known technology, Space Rider, the reusable spaceplane also developed by the Colleferro company. Space Rider is an autonomous orbital vehicle, a kind of mini-shuttle, capable of carrying payloads and scientific experiments. An Italian-led project conceived in 2016 to fly atop a Vega C, Space Rider is still in the testing phase and is expected to debut in 2026.

New Engines and Reusable Rockets

Another major item is the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme, or FLPP, funded with over €500 million, more than half covered by Germany (€290 million). It is dedicated to various technological projects for next-generation launchers with low Technology Readiness Levels (TRL 1–9, from early conception to operational use). For years, this program has designed low-cost engines such as Prometheus, fueled by liquid methane and oxygen, mostly 3D-printed, restartable, and useful for upper stages that release satellites into their assigned orbits. It could be a solution for Ariane 6 but especially for reusable rockets, like the Maia prototypes by Maiaspace, and Themis.

It is significant that Themis was born in this Esa “incubator”: the technological demonstrator built in Les Mureaux, designed to return to Earth after delivering a payload to orbit, is expected to perform its first “hops” soon. In June 2025, it arrived at the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden, equipped with a Prometheus engine. In 2026, delayed from the schedule, its first hop test, vertical takeoff, and landing are expected.

FLPP also includes concepts for less powerful engines to ignite in orbit, as well as next-generation materials for future launchers. Berlin has invested heavily in this sector; it is among the most expensive and strategic budget items, yet France and Italy hold the European exclusive capability to reach space. With its investments, Germany now aims to become the next European country capable of accessing orbit, followed by Spain and the United Kingdom.

Resilience for Defense

On the dual-use technology front, Esa has allocated funds for navigation, positioning, and timing technologies, Galileo, and future secure navigation and signaling systems such as Navisp and FutureNav, almost three times the funding of the previous Ministerial (€969 million vs €351 million three years earlier). Just over €2 billion will be dedicated to satellite communications, a pillar of new global sovereignty, with several projects on the horizon. The largest, the multi-orbit constellation for connectivity Iris², is not mentioned. As an initiative of the European Commission, Esa will be a strategic partner for satellite technologies.

The European Resilience from Space initiative, launched by Aschbacher to support European Defense with space infrastructure, received a total of €450 million, particularly for Earth observation. Spain alone contributed €325 million for the Earth observation satellites Esca+. New subscriptions are expected, Aschbacher specified, at the beginning of next year.

ERS is a cross-cutting budget item, expected to cover both detailed planetary monitoring and navigation and communications. In the latter two areas, funding is less precise in terms of goals and programs. ESA has made itself available to provide future clarifications, but it is not within its civilian remit that Europe’s defensive structure can be fully found.