Space Age: With Russia out, India is among Europe’s options to use rocket launchers
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With Russia blocking Europe’s access to its Soyuz rocket launcher facility because of the Ukraine war, the European Space Agency (ESA) is thinking of three other options, including India.
According to the media reports, the ESA has zeroed in on Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Japan, and India.
The ESA has started preliminary technical discussions with the private American space entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company SpaceX for temporarily using its launchers.
Since August 2019, SpaceX has recorded 174 launches, 136 landings, and 112 reflights.
The US-based SpaceX, a competitor to Europe’s Arianespace, has now emerged as the main alternative to Russia, the two others being Japan and India. The ESA’s final decision would come after the launch date for its delayed Ariane 6 rocket, the media reports, quoting ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher, said on Saturday.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 this year, its political fallout has come as a boon for SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which is attracting customers moving away from Moscow.
OneWeb, a satellite internet firm competing with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet firm, has booked launches on SpaceX and with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Until now, the ESA has been using the Italian Vega for small payloads, Russia’s Soyuz for medium ones, and the Ariane 5 for heavy missions. Its next-generation Vega C debuted in July. Its new Ariane 6 was delayed until next year. They may decide on a new schedule in October. The ESA’s 22 nation members will then take a final call in November to select between SpaceX, Japan, or India.
Aschbacher regretted that, because of the Ukraine conflict, Europe’s decade-long cooperation strategy with Russia in gas supplies and other areas, including space, was no longer working.
“This was a wake-up call that we have depended too much on Russia.”
He, however, played it down when asked about the Russian threat to withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS).
Yuri Borisov, Russia’s new space chief, had said in July that Moscow would pull out of the ISS “after 2024” but later clarified that Russia’s plans remained unchanged. The West also said Russia had not communicated any new pull-out plans.
