The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) has called on the continent’s leaders to stop easing Elon Musk’s ambition to dominate the new space economy, warning that the lack of coordinated action means the billionaire is “making the rules ” by myself.
Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s new director general, said Europe’s willingness to help with the rapid expansion of Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service, risks hindering regional companies from realizing the potential of commercial space.
“The space will be much more restrictive [em termos de] frequencies and orbital ‘windows’,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Europe’s governments should collectively have an interest in giving European providers equal opportunities to operate in a fair market.”
Germany recently signed up with the International Telecommunications Union, which coordinates the use of wireless frequencies for data transmission, to grant Starlink spectrum to some 40,000 satellites. Musk has already won approval for more than 30,000 satellites through US regulators.
This year, Musk said that SpaceX, his private rocket company, is prepared to spend up to $30 billion to expand Starlink.
Aschbacher said Musk’s Starlink is already so big it’s hard for regulators or rivals to keep up. “We have one person who owns half of the active satellites in the world. That’s surprising. In fact, he’s making the rules. The rest of the world, including Europe, is just not reacting quickly enough.”
Starlink and OneWeb, backed by the British government, are leading a race to create constellations of hundreds and even thousands of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites to provide broadband to hard-to-reach regions by cable.
The Chinese government and Amazon’s Kuiper Project plan to launch their own LEO constellations.
A new generation of space companies, driven by lower launch costs and cheaper satellites, also intend to deliver commercial LEO services such as ground observation.
The rush to tap the potential of commercial space has fueled concerns about the lack of a global space traffic management system for low-earth orbit, the region up to 2,000 kilometers above Earth, where most new commercial services are heading .
Last year, the Satellite Industry Association estimated that there could be more than 100,000 commercial spacecraft in orbit by 2029.
Aschbacher’s concerns were echoed by Franz Fayot, Luxembourg’s economy minister, who said new rules were needed to ensure the safe use of space.
“We have people like Elon Musk just launching satellite constellations and putting Teslas into orbit. We need to set common rules. Colonization, or just doing things in a totally unregulated space, is a concern,” he said behind the scenes at the New Space conference in Luxembourg .
Starlink did not respond to requests for comment.
Europe’s satellite industry is dominated by traditional operators who rely on far fewer expensive, high-orbiting satellites to provide services such as broadcast television.
Although the ITU coordinates radio frequencies, there is no higher international authority or regulatory body controlling the launch of satellites. One fear is that when the orbits become crowded, there is an increasing risk of collisions, which could generate catastrophic amounts of debris. Space junk is already a significant risk.
Steve Collar, chief executive of satellite operator SES, said the industry is “moving into a situation where there will be too many satellites in use. Many of these plans are a direct reaction to the fact that no one is properly regulating.” Luxembourg owns one third of the voting rights of SES.
Musk in particular is under attack from astronomers and rivals for the pace of its expansion. This year, the SpaceX rocket company launched more than 100 satellites a month, with about 2,000 currently in low-Earth orbit.
Astronomers fear that huge numbers of satellites will interfere with ground-based telescopes and could “impact the appearance of the night sky to stargazers around the world,” according to a report by the American Astronomical Society.
Ralph Dinsley, founder of NORSS, which tracks objects in space, said the fact that Musk makes his own satellites and can launch them with SpaceX means he can move faster than rivals to occupy the most desirable orbital planes . “At the speed with which he’s putting these [artefatos] in orbit, he almost owns these orbital planes, because nobody can enter them. He is creating a Musk sovereignty in space.”
Aschbacher said it is clear that US regulators, as part of a national government, are “interested in developing not just the economy, but also a certain dominance of some economic sectors. This is happening very, very, very clearly. .”
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
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