A large gray ball sets the topic. It hangs under the ceiling in Hall B at the Berlin aerospace trade fair ILA: It's about the moon. Visitors can take a virtual moonwalk with video glasses. The ILA trade fair ended on Sunday. But when a German can actually set off for the moon remains to be seen.
Not even a timely flight near the Earth's satellite is currently scheduled. It was announced last autumn as a sensation at the Council of Ministers meeting of the member states of the European Space Agency ESA in Bremen. Luca Parmitano, an Italian, is now part of the crew of NASA's next Artemis mission.
“The moon is just being discovered again”
“We have a new situation,” says Josef Aschbacher, the Director General of ESA. NASA has revised its lunar program; the Americans would rather set foot on the moon quickly instead of placing the Lunar Gateway station in an orbit from which landers could then reach the moon. The Europeans were supposed to supply all kinds of technology for the gateway, in return the Americans provided three astronaut seats for flights towards the moon, the first for Germany. With the Gateway program paused, the astronaut deal from the fall has been held up.
Aschbacher tries to find positive things in the new situation. "We now have the ambition to bring European astronauts to the surface of the moon. That wasn't what it was about before," he said at the ILA. He sees the fact that an Italian, a European, will now be part of the Artemis III mission outside of the original agreement as evidence that NASA wants to continue to work closely with Europe. Parmitano's flight will be part of a larger package, there are no details yet. "The moon is currently being discovered again. There is a lot of optimism. And we are in the process of negotiating our contribution," says Aschbacher. “We don’t just want to participate, we want to drive projects forward.”
Negotiations are necessary, Europe cannot manage the journey to the moon alone. There is currently no European spacecraft for humans. “I consciously ask decision-makers and politicians whether Europe wants to continue to be a passenger in American or Chinese capsules,” says Aschbacher.
“NASA doesn’t have much consideration for others right now.”
He has an advocate in Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD), Mayor of Bremen and incumbent President of the Federal Council. “NASA is currently not showing much consideration for others,” Bovenschulte recently told the F.A.Z. on the sidelines of a visit to the Japanese space agency JAXA. The Artemis change was not agreed upon in advance with the European partners. In February, OHB, a company based in Bovenschulte's home town of Bremen, presented its own plans for a lunar station. A model is on display at the ILA under the large gray ball.
“We need our own access to space,” said Bovenschulte in Japan. For a country's future viability, it is important to remain technologically up to date. Japan may have recognized this better than Germany. The ESA was recently allocated a record budget of 22 billion euros by its member states for the years 2026 to 2028; Germany is the largest payer with more than five billion euros. Bovenschulte called for national programs to also grow. Japan set up a space strategy fund in 2024, into which 800 billion yen (4.8 billion euros) have so far flowed for strategically important projects.
The ESA, which coordinates space research and also to stimulate private investment, is hoping for a signal effect through the IPO of the company SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk. Based on the share issue price of $135, SpaceX was valued at $1.77 trillion. Gains on Friday brought the valuation over $2 trillion. The assessment is “impressive evidence of the economic importance of space travel in today’s world,” says ESA boss Aschbacher. “Europe must use this momentum to act now.”
While SpaceX is rising to trillions of dollars, the European part of space travel is trying to reduce the gap with its own rocket launches. The launch of the Ariane 6 rocket is scheduled for Wednesday and is intended to bring 36 satellites into space for the Kuiper project, which Amazon opposes SpaceX's activities. Previously, at the start of the week, the German start-up Isar Aerospace actually wanted to send its Spektrum rocket on the next test flight.
But nothing came of it. Isar Aerospace canceled the flight shortly before the scheduled takeoff. The company cited irregularities in the rocket's fluid system as the reason. Isar Aerospace had canceled several launch attempts since January, mostly due to technical problems. The first test flight launch last year was successful, but the rocket crashed after 30 seconds. The start was still considered a success.
Isar Aerospace is a bearer of hope for rockets with smaller payloads, so-called microlaunchers. The ESA has launched a competition; it is acting as an anchor customer for launch slots and wants to promote commercial space travel. The next round of funding in the competition is scheduled for 2028, by which time participants must have demonstrated a successful flight. Isar Aerospace is considered to be well advanced; the Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) wants to follow up with a test flight in August, followed by the Ariane subsidiary Maiaspace and a Spanish competitor. In the end, two providers should emerge from the competition in order to increase the number of European launches. Regular operations are lagging behind: the USA recorded almost 200 orbital launches in 2025 - primarily because of SpaceX - while European providers achieved a single-digit number.
Isar Aerospace board member Stella Guillen said at the ILA that rockets and space stations for launches threatened to become “bottlenecks” for space travel. In view of the many projects, it does not always seem to be taken into account that the launches are an irreplaceable part of the logistics. “We have a great need in Europe and are still lagging behind,” she says. Ariane continues to rely on large rockets that launch less frequently but transport more. Smaller rockets are an important addition, says David Cavaillolès, head of the Arianespace subsidiary responsible for the launches. But rockets with large payloads remained indispensable for building large satellite constellations. With 36 satellites on the next flight, Ariane wants to exceed the values of the American Atlas 5 and Falcon 9 rockets. After difficulties in recent years, the company is now on track. Four launches are planned for 2026, after which seven to eight are planned - ultimately there should be up to ten a year. "We have a new rocket that now works well. A new chapter begins for us," says Cavaillolès.
