The American giants will be absent, the German Chancellor will be busy in her country: what remains of the ambition of the first international space summit organized at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron?, notes Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
The space summit is scheduled to be held in Paris on September 9 and 10. 120 countries have been invited to it, with the exception of Russia, Iran and North Korea. It will be held under the glass roof of the “Grand Palais“ in Paris.
The American giants “SpaceX“ and “Blue Origin“ , as well as startups “Stoke Space“ and “Starcloud“ canceled their participation on Thursday amid rumors of pressure from the White House, the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Space told AFP.
The absence of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was also officially confirmed on Friday. He was supposed to co-chair the unprecedented international meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, but his busy schedule - a speech in the Bundestag and a meeting with European Council President Antonio Costa on Wednesday, followed by a conversation with United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Thursday - left him “no opportunity” to participate, according to a German government spokesman.
In the run-up to the meeting, the French and Germans "got along very well and were ready to talk about all issues, without excluding those on which there are differences of opinion or even rivalry," the Elysee Palace said a few days before the meeting.
President Macron sees this meeting as an opportunity for Europe to affirm "its vision for the next ten years and the place it wants to occupy in space flights and research," the Elysee Palace said.
The meeting comes at a time when US President Donald Trump has set a target of 1,000 launches per year by 2030.
The head of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher, is pushing for a new ambition for Europe in space, saying that Europe could develop manned spaceships ships “at a reasonable price“.
Until now, manned flights have not been a priority for the ESA, which has relied on the United States for European astronauts' access to space, as well as for part of its ambitions to explore the Moon.
But Washington's withdrawal from some programs has made Europeans think about their dependence on the United States and their own role in lunar exploration, notes Agence France-Presse.