With the end of the Cold War, the main question regarding the space race is whether it will become a co-operative venture. This text describing the the European Space Agency shows how such a co-operative enterprise has worked over the past 30 years and how

This book combines perspectives from political science, history and geography to provide a comprehensive introduction to 'Europe' or European space as we understand it today. Central to the book is the phenomenon of the sovereign state and the question of alternative ways of organizing Europe politically and economically. The book explores four different ways of organizing space: state, union, region and network. By tracing the origins of the sovereign state in Europe, the book first reviews the resilience and adaptability of the sovereign state historically, and then looks at the implications of the contradictory processes of integration and fragmentation, or globalization and regionalization, present to

This book analyzes the policies and space economy programs of major space-faring nations and explores whether the present institutional set-up in Europe is adequate to address the challenges. At the core of the discussion are the relative roles of governments and markets in a highly dynamic panorama that involves advancements in science, modifications in technology and organization, and the introduction of new rules of behavior. After a close examination of the history of development of the space economy, and the shift from the centralized model to deregulation and the opening up of space activities to commercial companies, a wide-ranging overview of global space governance is provided. National and regional perspectives are discussed, and the current role of commercial actors in the global space system is elucidated. The various challenges faced by Europe are then examined, including the threat posed by institutional and market fragmentation to the emergence of European companies able to compete with companies of nations such as the USA. The final part of the book analyzes proposals for reforming of the space system in Europe and offers a vision for future European space policy.

This book, edited by the European Space Policy Institute, is the first international publication, following UNISPACE+50, to analyze how space capacity building can empower the international community towards fully accessing all the economic and societal benefits that space assets and data can offer. New innovation models are increasingly spreading across various sectors and disciplines, including space, which is becoming an integral part of many societal activities (e.g. telecoms, weather, climate change and environmental monitoring, civil protection, infrastructures, transportation and navigation, healthcare and education). The book helps readers construct their own space capacity building roadmaps, which take into account key stakeholders and also new private actors, NGOs and civil society. Starting from a policy and strategy perspective, it addresses key aspects of capacity building, including innovation and exploration, global health, climate change and resilient societies. It outlines the available options and summarizes the ideal programmatic conditions for their successful implementation. Showcasing reflections from a range of senior space professionals around the world, with their unique perspectives and solutions, it provides a rich mosaic in which various cultural and policy approaches to space are translated into actionable programs and ideas so that space may truly benefit all of humankind.

This publication provides a summary of the key methodological issues surrounding indicators and statistics on the space sector and the larger space economy.

The executive summary provides a short overview of the European space economy and its funding landscape and summarises the findings and recommendations of the study. The study reviews access-to-finance conditions met by companies active in the European space sector and proposes potential solutions to improve them. One of the principal objectives of this study is to analyse how public funds in the EU could be deployed to attract private investment and otherwise catalyse the development of the sector, considering also that such public funding should be entitled to achieve adequate returns. The study further explores how soft measures and advisory services could help promote private investment in the sector. Space is an important driver of innovation in Europe. While space used to be synonymous with government spending, today the sector sees the emergence of new private actors who see commercial opportunities in space exploration and exploitation. The study presents a number of recommendations and potential policy actions. One particular recommendation is to establish a Space Finance Forum: by bringing together the expertise of financial, industrial and academic stakeholders, we believe we will be able to explore and pilot new funding mechanisms and thereby catalyse private investment in the sector. The study was carried out by InnovFin Advisory in collaboration with the European Investment Advisory Hub, with the support of SpaceTec Partners.

For several decades it has been widely accepted that human space exploration is the exclusive domain of government agencies. The cost of performing such missions, estimated in multiple reports to amount to hundreds of billions dollars over decades, was far beyond what private entities could afford. That arrangement seems to be changing. Buoyed by the success of its program to develop commercial cargo capabilities to support the International Space Station, NASA is becoming increasingly open to working with the private sector in its human space exploration plans. The new private-public partnership will make 'planet hopping' feasible. This book analyses the move towards planet hopping, which sees human outposts moving across the planetary dimensions, from the Moon to Near-Earth Asteroids and Mars. It critically assesses the intention to exploit space resources and how successful these missions will be for humanity. This insightful and accessible book will be of great interest to scholars and students of space policy and politics, international studies, and science and technology studies.