Remarks by Commissioner Kubilius on the EU Space Act and on a vision for European Space Economy.

Good afternoon,

Before starting to speak about space, I would like to remind you of several historical parallels.

The XIX century was the century of railways and trains; they were invented in that century, tested, and then became a massive industry and massive service;

The XX century in the same way was the century of automobiles and planes. They were invented a little bit before, but became a massive industry and massive service during the XX century. There was a revolutionary expansion. And when it spread to mass consumption, the situation started to demand agreed rules of the road and safety standards.

Space also reminds of the economic development of frontier territories of United States in XIX century: at the very beginning - bravery of the first explorers, then spread of railways and finally, industrialization of frontier territories created huge economic success.

If we use the same historical analogy - the twenty first century will be the century of space.

The century of the new frontier. And it is absolutely clear that we are at the start of a space revolution.

Very soon Space will become massive. With huge economic potential. Frontier exploration of space will open a new space for economic development.

In the next ten years, around 50,000 new satellites will be launched. So we will have five times as many active satellites as there are today

And the growth is exponential.

In the next ten years 2.5 times as many satellites, as in the entire 70 years of the space age before us.

And at the same time space economy is expected to triple in size in the next decade.

To 1.8 trillion dollars.

Such a revolutionary development brings new possibilities, but also new risks, new challenges and new strategic tasks to us. Very similar to what happened a hundred years ago with automobiles and started to happen with planes.

First of all, Space is becoming overcrowded.

Because satellites are not the only thing up there.

So is space junk. Space debris.

140 million pieces of space debris.

Vastly increasing risk of collision, of incidents.

Potentially damaging satellites, disrupting communication, navigation and other vital space services.

That is why it is time for us to have rules of the road in space and safety rules in space. Like 100 years ago it was done with the traffic on terrestrial roads.

And second - our space market can become very much fragmented.

And we shall be not able to use the power of our big Single Market to create global competitiveness of our space industry. Like it had happened with our defence industry.

At the moment, we still can call ourselves a global space power.

Power that makes people's lives better.

We have our Galileo, Copernicus and forthcoming IRIS2, which are or will be the best satellite services in the world.

We have top industry, scientists and engineers.

But still we risk falling behind.

Because our space market is becoming very much fragmented.

Why?

Because at the moment 12 Member States have their one space laws. With one in the making.

A patchwork of national space laws.

Creating a potpourri of different rules of the road and different regulations on safety.

Imagine you are a company and need to follow 13 different sets of rules.

This fragmentation is bad for business, bad for competitiveness, bad for our future in space.
And because of that we are not competitive enough.
That is what the Draghi report shows.

We want Europe to benefit from that massive space economy.

With the Space Act we will do something new.

Because today we propose one single set of rules, which will be good for space companies, good for citizens and good for Europe.

And that is how we will create a single market for space.

To be precise: A single market for space services and space data.

Today we make history.

The EU Space Act is the first time ever we regulate space activities in the European Union. The frontier is going to become a part of Single market, with smart regulation.

In the future, space will affect all aspects of our daily lives.

The Space Act will allow us to grow in space.

Growth in space means growth and jobs on earth. And in space.

The Space Act will create common, stable and predictable rules – that will help to make our industry more competitive.

Creating a level playing field for all.

The Space Act applies to and benefits all companies providing services on the single market.

Space operators and data providers.

European companies and non – European companies.

Public and private operators.

Companies big and small.

With special support for smaller companies.

Now on the substance of the EU Space Act.

It targets the most important problems and growing dangers that can endanger our future in space.

Namely, that space is increasingly congested and contested.

First, congested:

As I said before – it is crowded up there. And it is getting exponentially crowded. By satellites and by debris.

Even a piece the size of a ping pong ball can cause massive destruction.

With as doomsday scenario: a cascade of collisions called the ‘Kessler effect'.

A sort of space avalanche. A chain-reaction of collisions.

Destroying satellites and making space launches impossible.

Also, Space traffic is massively increasing.

But there are now no traffic rules in space.

So it is time to put in place rules of the road for space.

To prevent damage and disasters and protect space services.

And it is clear these space traffic rules need to be the same, all-over Europe.

And these traffic rules we are bringing with the Space Act.

Our space assets are not only in danger from accidents. But also, from deliberate attacks.

Space is not only congested but also contested.

Contested because threats to space systems are increasing.

Both cyber and physical risks.

We know there is continuous Radio-frequency interference with our systems, jamming and spoofing.

We know there are many cyber-attacks.

In fact, the first thing Russia attacked,

A few hours before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Was Viasats KA-SAT Network.

So, with our Space Act, we will increase the resilience of our satellites and space operations.

The Space Act is a Regulation about services.

It describes the procedure for authorisation and registration for space operators.

It lays down the technical rules of the Space Act, in three parts.

To ensure safety of launchers and satellites we propose rules to reduce space debris. Satellites must de-orbit after 25 years.

Or one year if they are in Very Low Earth Orbit.

Also rules to avoid collision, and orbit traffic or re-entry rules.

For resilience of space infrastructure we propose rules for risk management of space missions and rules for reporting incidents.

We propose a method for calculating the environmental footprint of space activities.

And a shared database for impact assessments.

In short: we propose a single set of common requirements that apply consistently in the single market.

There will be no new red tape.

No extra layer of bureaucracy.

As before, Member States will authorise and approve space activities.

What changes: authorisations issued by one Member State, will be recognised in the entire European Union.

The Space act is future proof: favours no specific technology. Is technology neutral.

We will give Member States and businesses time to prepare:

it will only apply to new authorisations for launches two years after its adoption.

The law does not apply to the military. The law has a national security clause.

And the law will support smaller companies.

First, with a proportionate ‘lighter regime'. And second, with supportive measures for capacity building, technical assistance and funding.

These will help smaller companies to offset possible implementation costs.

Today we also present a Commission communication ‘A vision for European Space Economy.'

Space is crucial in all our daily and economical activities. Without space services available today, we would lose around 10% of our economy.

Space industry, even more than all other industries, needs a specific EU industrial policy strategy (because this is an economy of new frontier) and that is what this Communication is about.

The Communication presents 40 concrete measures planned by the Commission, divided into two different topics.

How to strengthen our existing industrial and economic capacities in space, which still are in the stage of initial frontier exploration.

And here we need to see 2 directions: up-stream and down stream space economies.

Which means making our launching and satellite services, and also other up-stream  industries competitive and profitable;

and second we need to increase our capabilities in down-stream, especially in space big-data economy.

What is a major challenge with the down-stream can be seen from the fact of today:

Copernicus produces more than 300 petabytes of data a day and these are mostly exploited by US companies, such as Google Earth.

The second topic of Communication is the vision of the future.

The Space frontier during next decades will become more and more industrialized.

In-space operations, manufacturing in space, lunar economy will become a new reality. And we need to prepare ourselves for that.

First of all, building our ‘railways' into the Space frontier: our autonomous transportation and launching systems in space.

Without that, we will leave to somebody else the revolutionary space frontier transformation into very profitable space economy.

Space is the new frontier.

At the beginning on the frontier there are no rules.

Putting all space activities in danger.

Time comes for change - with the Space Act we are bringing law and order, to the frontier, we are protecting our space assets from damage and attacks.

And we are creating a single market for space.

And also opening up export markets, with mutual recognition within Europe and internationally.

The Space Act is opening for us the gates into the century of Space, when frontline space will become mature part of a Single Market.