ESA Headquarters (Photo by ESA)

Europe is ramping up its spending levels in space to unprecedented new levels as it looks to space to develop the capabilities it needs to be a space leader. The theme of more capabilities in space security and defense is also high on the agenda here. The contributions to the European Space Agency (ESA) will reach 22.3 billion euros ($25.9 billion).

European Member States have guaranteed an historic increase of 3.5 percent increase per year beyond inflation at the recent Ministerial Council last week. The council confirmed support for key science, exploration and technology programs alongside a significant increase in the budget of space applications – Earth Observation (EO), navigation and telecommunications. These three elements are also fundamental to the European Resilience from Space initiative.

Security and resilience will be at the heart of what Europe is doing here as it ramps up its overall spending. The European Resilience from Space initiative has been introduced to help support dual-use capacity for Europe. Initial funding will go towards a system giving access to high- temporal and spatial resolution satellite images – through pooling and sharing of resources and building a network to fill gaps in observations. This will be supported by new navigation services from Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and by secure connectivity.

“In the face of a challenging geopolitical situation all the states contributing to the ESA budget, and indeed the European Commission, have put their faith in ESA to keep delivering programs that will support European leadership in space, and help stretch our capabilities on Earth, in orbit, and into deep space. While we celebrated 50 years of achievements this year, the work is only beginning,” Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, said in a statement.