EUROPE IN SPACE: the road ahead

During late November 2019, science and finance ministers from all over Europe converged on Seville, Spain with one topic in mind – the European Space Agency (ESA). Every three years, the agency hosts one of these ministerial level meeting where government officials from all 22 member nations come together to discuss what direction they believe the agency should be taking and, most importantly, hand over their money.

In this meeting, named Space19+, ESA had some ambitious plans to lay before its member states, and an equally ambitious funding request to make them happen. ESA wanted around €14.5bn over the next three years, its largest increase in 25 years. With several nations exceeding this request – including the UK, which increased its contribution by 15 per cent, bringing its pledge to £374m per year – the agency easily met its target, meaning all its