During the Paris Air Show on June 20, 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed that Europe should return to be a global space force again, according to France Press.
This came after France doubled its share at the company “Youet Sat”, to become its largest contributor, which is part of its strategy to enhance European independence in space.
In particular, Macron warned that Europe might marginalize in the low -Earth’s satellite market due to intense competition from companies such as SpaceX (owned by American billionaire Elon Mask) and Amazon satellite company (owned by US billionaire Jeff Bezos), as well as China’s growing efforts in this range.
In orbit
The low Earth’s orbit is one of the types of orbits in which satellites revolve around the Earth, and is the closest to the surface of the planet, as it is located at an altitude between 160 to two thousand kilometers above the surface of the Earth, and the satellite in an orbit is rotating this type very quickly (approximately 90 minutes for the full cycle).
The distance close to the Earth gives satellites an opportunity to build high -speed connections, as close to Earth means a low delay time, and this is very important in Internet calls, banking and instant financial services.
Besides, these satellites are used to monitor weather, climate, agriculture, monitor crops, flooding, fires, and natural disasters.
Besides, these satellites provide internet and communication services for areas that are not connected to ground networks, such as deserts, mountains and ships in the sea, as it is used by armies and governments to monitor military moves or firing missiles.
But this orbit is flawed that it covers only a small area, so satellite networks need global coverage, which is done by companies such as SpaceX in the satellites of the industrial starenik, for example, it has so far launched about 12 thousand satellites, and it is expected that the network is expected to reach 42 thousand satellites in the long term.
Hence, this orbit may face at a point the problem of congestion, as the presence of thousands of moons in close orbits raises the risk of collision, and the damaged satellites pose a future risk on the workforce and astronauts.
Various space
In his aforementioned speech, Macron described the space as a “new measure of power”, which includes communications, defense, response to emergency and technological independence.
Indeed, the defense is not limited to terrestrial wars, but rather includes the protection of military assets in space, such as spy satellites, which are used to monitor the movements of armies and countries, and military communications satellites that enable the forces to quickly and safe coordination anywhere in the world, as well as early warning systems that discover missile launch or sudden attacks.
This comes in the context of escalating space militarization year after year, as some countries (and succeeded) began to develop anti -satellite weapons that can destroy or disrupt the moons of other countries, and offensive satellites carrying interference capabilities, electronic attack, or destroyed laser.
For example, the United States has created “space force as an independent branch of the army since 2019, and China and Russia have developed similar programs during the past few years.
Technology independence
The foregoing comes in the context of an urgent necessity for technological independence, because the space has become an essential infrastructure for daily life, we rely daily on satellites in navigation and communications (Internet, phones, television broadcasts), weather and climate monitoring, and financial and banking services.
If these systems are under the control of foreign countries or companies, the country’s digital and economic security is not completely in their hand.
In addition, space is a huge economic market, and then whoever controls satellites and low orbit networks, controls global internet services, agricultural and environmental monitoring and future markets such as space mining and space tourism, and then investing in these ranges guarantees a fair share of these markets, instead of staying only consuming.
The construction of independent space programs requires that European countries work to manufacture their satellites by themselves without relying on other countries, having their own launchers (such as French Arian) instead of relying on companies such as SpaceX, managing telecommunications and space navigation networks independently, and developing digital space technologies (such as slides, driving systems and artificial intelligence) within Europe.
In particular, Europe began to sensitize the danger from the separation of the United States of America from it slowly, and then it has become a demand for spending on manufacturing and military development to fill the gap that America leaves, and technological independence comes in the same importance as armament for some.
Global acceleration
In recent years, the number has increased Missile launch The satellite is largely compared to the previous contracts. For example, in the 1990s, the global launch rate was about 40 to 60, but in 2023 and 2024 the number of launch exceeded 220 annually, most of which are led by private companies.
There are several reasons for this, on top of which is the increase in the number of small satellites, as the technology of satellites has evolved, and this made it easy and cheap manufacturing small and light satellites, and this universities and private companies participated in this, and even small countries that are launching their satellites with accelerated rates to serve everything, from communications for military operations.
I add the growth of huge cocaine projects, as companies such as “Cber”, “Starlink” and “Guang” intend to launch thousands of satellites to provide the Internet globally.
These projects alone require dozens of launch annually, this comes in the context of a clear development of missile manufacturing technology that has become easier and cheaper, especially with the ability to return the missile to the land and reuse it.
Moreover, we are in the midst of a new space race, as countries such as China, the United States, India and South Korea greatly expanded their space programs, this comes in the context of aspirations and concerns about the space arms race.