The European Commission presented a regulation on secure connectivity and space traffic management in Strasbourg on Tuesday, February 15, on the eve of the Toulouse Space Summit. These two EU flagship initiatives are concrete achievements under the action plan on synergies between the civil, space and defense industries.

Secure spatial connectivity

The EU intends to launch a secure satellite connectivity system and maintain a safe and sustainable space environment for its economy and population. The goal is to provide modern, reliable and fast connections to critical infrastructure (security, surveillance, crisis management, defense, economy) in the area, even in the most remote parts of the continent. These services will be provided by the private sector by 2030. Connectivity to areas of strategic interest such as the Arctic and Africa is also included in the program. The total cost of this system is estimated at 6 billion euros and aims to meet the growing needs of users. The EU is expected to contribute €2.4 billion until 2027. One third of the project will be financed by the Commission, one third by the private sector and the last third by the Member States. Secure space connectivity will be achieved through a constellation of satellites, the first of which will be operational in 2024. For Josep Borrell, head of European diplomacy, this will « give the European Union the capacity to react autonomously to threats ». For example, this new system will maintain the connection in case of crash of terrestrial infrastructure. With the new space connectivity, the EU also wants to secure its communications and not be caught short by the projects developed by the United States and China, knowing that orbits and frequencies are already taken.

To implement this new space initiative, the Commission launched an initial system study in December 2020 to examine technical aspects and possible service delivery models. The Commission has also issued an additional call to also involve Newspace SMEs and start-ups to incorporate their innovative and forward-thinking technological ideas.

Space traffic management

With the development of reusable launchers, small satellites and various private initiatives, the number of satellites in orbit has increased significantly in recent years. More than one million small pieces of debris are already orbiting the Earth. It is now necessary for Europe to adopt common rules on space traffic management. The European Commission wishes to make space traffic management a public policy priority. This will require an assessment of civilian and military space traffic management requirements and a strengthening of the EU’s capacity to identify and track space objects. It will be necessary to establish a normative and legislative framework as well as international partnerships. The objective is to develop concrete initiatives to promote the safe, secure, and sustainable use of space while preserving the strategic autonomy of the EU and the competitiveness of European industry. In the context of debris tracking, the stated objective is to achieve a set of European practices and rules for both the civil and military dimensions of the space sector. For example, including space and orbit surveillance (SST) activities, or space debris removal.

Regarding avoidance capabilities, the European Defense Fund will be asked to develop radars and telescopes. Another project would be to develop satellites with avoidance and return-to-Earth capabilities if they become obsolete. Collaborations with start-ups are also planned to create ways to bring back to Earth satellites that are out of service and occupying space unnecessarily.

The EU’s approach to space traffic management is therefore based on four axes:

– Identify civil and military space traffic management requirements and the implications of space traffic management for the EU;

– Improve the EU technological capabilities for the identification and tracking of space vehicles and space debris;

– Determine the appropriate normative and legislative framework;

– Establish international partnerships in the field of space traffic management and dialogue at the multilateral level.

Finally, it should be noted that the United States is also thinking about the issue of space traffic management. NASA has just questioned the safety of the Starlink constellation of SpaceX, the company headed by Elon Musk.