Bloomberg: Europe falling behind in space race

European countries are losing ground to their main competitors in the global space race due to an acute shortage of launch vehicles, Bloomberg reports.

The outlet said Russia, China and the United States have launched hundreds of satellites into orbit over the past five years, tested new systems, and increasingly deployed so-called inspector satellites capable of approaching other objects in orbit and monitoring their activity.

Bloomberg estimates that the three countries have invested around $200 billion over that period to develop their defence and intelligence capabilities in space.

According to the agency, Europe is absent from this increasingly intense race, constrained by diverging interests, limited national budgets and the lack of a key space technology — a sufficient number of heavy-lift launch vehicles to carry out multiple orbital launches each year.

In 2025, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched only four Ariane 6 heavy-lift rockets, each capable of carrying just under 22 tonnes of payload. Due to production and infrastructure constraints, ESA is currently able to launch only 10 such rockets annually.

By comparison, the United States carries out around 15 launches per month, while the US-built Falcon Heavy has a payload capacity of 64 tonnes — nearly three times that of the Ariane 6.

Bloomberg wrote that closing the gap with the United States would cost Europe billions of euros.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov