Space travel: New Space as an opportunity for the economy

The Federal Association of Industry is holding its second space congress on Wednesday. Matthias Wachter, who is responsible for space at BDI, says New Space is a growth market.

tagesschau.de: Mr. Wachter, you say: space travel concerns us all. Why?

Matthias Wachter: Many people have the image that space travel is about whimsical billionaires, space tourism and the colonization of Mars. All of this exists, but it is only a small facet. The actual and much larger part of the global space economy is data-driven applications. Space travel is not an end in itself.

Especially for the industrial country of Germany, New Space will be indispensable for autonomous driving with precise position data from space or the networking of machines. Space systems, i.e. satellites, provide and transport data. If we look at digitalization, there is actually almost no area left where satellites do not play a role. Anyone who is not at the forefront of space will not be a technology leader on Earth in the future.

BDI Congress should trigger a new beginning

tagesschau.de: You warn that Germany and Europe will be left behind in New Space, why?

Guardian: A lot has happened in space travel since our first space congress in 2019. The importance of space travel has continued to increase significantly, also strategically militarily, as can be seen in Russia’s war against Ukraine, where space systems such as Starlink are used very intensively.

The aim of the congress is to trigger a new beginning, to ignite courage and enthusiasm for this topic. The federal government approved a new space strategy a few weeks ago, but at the same time there are plans to cut the national space budget from 370 to 313 million in the 2024 budget. That’s a cut of over 15%, that’s a wrong signal. Germany should invest at least as much nationally as France. A new global space race is taking place today – not between the USA and the Soviet Union like the first one – but this time mainly between the USA and China. These two countries are investing multiples of Germany in New Space. Germany runs the risk of repeating mistakes with other future technologies, such as semiconductors. Europe has even temporarily lost its access to space.

System change required

tagesschau.de: They allude to the technical problems of ESA’s Vega and Ariane 6 launch vehicles. Why is politics to blame? Didn’t the companies that build the rockets make mistakes?

Guardian: At the moment the European missiles are “political missiles”. The design of the rockets, the engines used, the suppliers, all of this is decided politically by the 22 ESA member countries. It was a political decision to say that the new Ariane 6 rocket is not recyclable. The industry is trying to build and launch this rocket based on political guidelines and, in our opinion, that is the wrong approach. We should orient ourselves more towards the USA.

It should not be the responsibility of agencies like ESA and governments to determine the design of rockets, but rather they should, as customers, purchase rocket launches from private companies. Engineers and companies should decide what is the best and most efficient technology for building and launching rockets, not politics. If we currently want to launch satellites into space, we cannot launch with European launchers, while in the USA the private company SpaceX will launch 100 times this year alone.

“A system change would be necessary”

tagesschau.de: That means: Are you calling for a system reversal; states should no longer commission companies, but rather buy from companies?

Guardian: What would be necessary is a system change based on the American model, in which the state acts primarily as a customer. NASA buys capabilities and services from American companies on the market. Contracts are the most efficient and best form of the New Space market in terms of regulatory policy. The interest and skills on the industry side are there. We now have well over 800 registrations for the congress. A large number of participants will be representatives of start-ups, which is rather unusual for the BDI.

tagesschau.de: In which areas could the state act as a customer?

Guardian: New Space is a cross-cutting issue and a great opportunity for the private and public sectors. The federal, state and local governments make far too little use of the opportunities offered by digitalization. Space-based applications are part of the solution to make ministries, authorities and government agencies and institutions more efficient and faster. Space travel is very often about sovereign and state capabilities and applications. If the customer “state” does not exist, so to speak, or fails, then that is a very big disadvantage for the New Space companies.

Spaceport in the North Sea?

tagesschau.de: At the first BDI Space Congress in 2019, you launched an initiative for a German spaceport in the North Sea in order to gain your own access to space. Has something happened there?

Guardian: The BDI President will publicly announce the launch window for the first rocket launch from the North Sea for the first time in his speech tomorrow in the presence of the Federal Chancellor. Chancellor Scholz will then speak. Anyone who is not at the forefront of space will not be a technology leader on Earth in the future.

tagesschau.de: Do space launches from the North Sea make sense?

Guardian: The North Sea is geographically very suitable because from here you can directly reach polar and sun-synchronous orbits. The rockets fly exclusively over water and in international airspace between Norway and Scotland before entering space. The launch platform is located in Germany’s so-called exclusive economic zone, a 200-mile zone off the coast.

Number of satellites will increase

tagesschau.de: From there, microlaunchers, i.e. small and light launch vehicles, will launch and take satellites into space. Is this really a market?

Guardian: There are currently around 6,000 satellites in space. Of these, around half of the active satellites belong to the SpaceX company Starlink. As many satellites have been launched in the past 60 years as in the last three years. The forecasts, which are in principle revised upwards every year, assume that around 2,000 satellites will be launched into space every year by 2030. Of these, 90 percent are small and micro satellites that are positioned in polar and sun-synchronous orbits. And that is exactly the segment that can be served from the North Sea and that commercial German microlaunchers can cover.

The interview was conducted by Ute Spangenberger, SWR, for tagesschau.de.