50 Years of the European Space Agency: Backing Europe’s Strategic Autonomy in Space

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently celebrated its 50^th anniversary. Through half a century of its existence, the agency has significantly expanded Europe’s footprint in outer space. As the flagbearer of European space power, the agency stands as a tall success story in the institutionalization of space science collaboration.

On several counts, the ESA may be regarded as an unconventional space agency. Unlike the NASA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) or the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the ESA is primarily a club. A majority of its members are EU member-states, the United Kingdom is a former EU member, while Norway and Switzerland are not. Employing instruments such as the long-term framework agreement with Canada, it has also been able to demonstrate unique templates for successful and outcome-oriented modes of space collaboration.

ESA: The Origin Story

The ESA came about in the post-World War II context when a majority of Europe’s intellectual capital had been drained either by the United States or the Soviet Union. Weakened on economic and technological counts, European leaders were collectively aware of the fact that no single nation could alone compete in space with the two Cold War superpowers. French physicist Pierre Auger and Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi proposed the idea to create a European organisation, similar to the CERN. The purpose of such an agency would be to focus purely on scientific research. These efforts would ultimately lead to the creation of two agencies in 1962: the European Launch Development Organisation (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO).

While ELDO was tasked with developing a launch capability, ESRO’s focus was on developing robotic spacecraft. Within a decade’s time, ESRO went on to establish itself “as a leader in space exploration”. Meanwhile, ELDO faced several technological and political obstacles, leading to its progressive dismantling. The two entities finally merged in 1975 to create the ESA, with ten founding members signing the ESA Convention.

Defining its objective as the promotion of peaceful exploration of outer space and technology development, the Convention also entails key diplomatic frameworks to guide cooperation among the ESA members. Its emphasis on information and data exchange among member-states is particularly noteworthy. This provision has essentially created a culture of mutual trust which has been reinforced by interactions, experiences of collaboration and the spirit of scientific pursuit. This culture of collaboration has arguably allowed the agency to emerge alongside NASA as a space science leader.

The ESA Legacy

Over the last five decades, the ESA has emerged as a major tool for Europe to address challenges and pursue multiple strategic objectives. Through cementing perceptions on Europe’s technological prestige, the ESA played a pivotal role in establishing a nascent EU’s credence as a new political entity. The agency effectively facilitated the EU’s access to space by steering the Ariane launch vehicle program to success. Meanwhile, projects such as Galileo evidence successful efforts to leverage access to space and attain autonomous navigation capabilities.

Through placing diplomacy at the centre, the ESA has also evolved as a major public goods provider in space, particularly through programmes such as the COPERNICUS-SENTINEL. Described as the earth observation (EO) component of the EU’s space program, the COPERNICUS program is implemented by a fleet of SENTINEL satellites. End-users can utilise real-time, all-weather satellite data for services including land management and disaster relief. Data from the programme is made available to users worldwide through the EU’s participation in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, an international effort to link existing EO programs around the world. The ESA’s legacy herein has become synonymous with the EU’s broader standing in the spacefaring arena.

The ESA has also historically been a keen participant in endeavours intended to enhance humanity’s understanding of the cosmos. It has successfully leveraged collaborations with other space agencies to become part of legacy space exploration projects, including the International Space Station. It worked with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency on the Hubble Space Telescope, the observations from which have significantly helped scientists study blackholes and the broader patterns in the expansion of the universe since 1990. The ESA’s technical instruments are also aboard NASA’s James Webb Telescope, which was launched in 2021 to complement the Hubble’s observations.

The ESA ventured into the study of comets in the late 1980s while most of the missions launched by the USA and the Soviet Union during the Cold War decades focused on the Moon and/or Earth’s planetary neighbours. ESA’s historic Giotto mission, launched in 1986 entered the record books as the first spacecraft to fly-by the Halley’s comet. It would once again perform a wondrous fete in 1992 when the agency “woke it up” to study the Grigg-Skejllerup comet. The Rosetta mission, launched in 2014, became widely acclaimed although it could not land on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The ESA has also successfully executed missions to Mars and to Titan, the moon of the planet Saturn.

Stumbling through the Blocks

As the ESA continues to fly Europe’s flag in space, a combination of instability from within and outside the continent, along with technological disruption, has posed significant constraints on its ambitions. The signs of such constrains taking a toll on the agency were briefly visible in the immediate months following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The EU was effectively left without independent access to space for nearly two years. Having run out of its Ariane-5 launch vehicles by July 2023, the souring of relations with Russia meant that the EU also lost the option of using Russian Soyuz-ST launchers from the ESA’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guyana. The Ariane-6 was still under development and only made its maiden flight in March 2025. The scramble to accommodate priority mission launches at the last minute has caused Europe’s space policy to lay renewed impetus on strategic autonomy in space.

The ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on ESA’s aspirations are also discernible. The latest budget document from the agency reveals that three of its largest contributors – Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom – have substantially trimmed their contributions compared to 2024. The 2025 budget is “down about 1.4% from the 7.79 billion euros the agency had for 2024”. While this could be driven “by individual policy decisions of these nations or the timing of the missions”, it is also important to note that this cut is occurring amid European nations increasing defense spending. Of further concern to the future of ESA’s deep space exploration missions is the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the NASA budget. This is expected to affect ESA’s involvement in the Artemis lunar mission and is likely to result in the cancellation of the Mars Sample Return mission.

However, the agency is already recalibrating its strategy to adapt to the changing environment. Along with measures taken to encourage private space industry, the ESA is looking to diversify partnerships, while not compromising on its goal to promote space exploration to further advances in science and technology. On the other hand, it has also signalled a change in terms of a recent announcement of intent to support members in security and defence. Such a dramatic turn would additionally bolster the ESA’s legacy as a champion of Europe’s ambitions.

Disclaimer: The article expresses the author’s views on the matter and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of any institution they belong to or of Trivium Think Tank and the StraTechos website.

Anupama is the Director (Research) of Trivium Think Tank, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. She is also the Editor of the StraTechos website.