Faced with SpaceX's dominance, Europe forced to build its own autonomous access to space

Since summer 2026, Europe is concerned about its access to space by 2030. SpaceX has halted Falcon-9 flights beyond 2028, raising doubts for European institutions relying on it for satellite launches. With increasing demands for satellite launches, including the IRIS² telecom constellation and military satellites, there are fears of insufficient capacity. Christophe Bruneau from ArianeGroup acknowledged potential delays in launching key projects like IRIS² and Galileo, which could lead to prolonged dependence on American services like Starlink.