STAND by for a new kind of space race. In its white paper on space published last week, the European Commission laid out a vision motivated not by achievement or national pride but financial gain.
The most notable aim is to give the European Union member nations independent access to space, ending a history of reliance on US and Russian launches. By boosting investment in its own space technology, Europe hopes to compete with other space powers on an equal footing.
So don’t expect any glamorous missions to the moon or Mars in the near future: the initial plan is to generate profits from space technologies…
