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European firm offers support for struggling space sector

The European Space Company revealed procedures on Thursday to accelerate payments to the space market in the face of mounting job cuts, while enforcing higher scrutiny following a raft of expense overruns and delays.

Director General Josef Aschbacher announced the strategy after a. council conference of the 22-nation company, a week after Jet. announced 2,500 job cuts mainly in its satellites. business.

Profitability has actually been raised as a major concern, Aschbacher. said, pointing out current announcements at Airplane Defence and Area. and Franco-Italian competing Thales Alenia Area.

The proposed assistance will consist of increasing the level of. downpayments on brand-new agreements and releasing progress payments. more quickly without waiting for all advancement milestones to. be completed, which of course takes a lot longer, he added.

However the proposal likewise includes greater oversight.

Aschbacher stated a recently formed Independent Task. Management Authority would be charged with scrutinising new. programmes for expense, schedule and material to ensure they are. realistically prepared.

We are working in space technology where we are always. anticipating the unexpected ... We will need to do deal with this,. however at least from a cost and schedule point of view, we would like. more of a conservative manner to make sure that the preparation is. going extremely well, Aschbacher stated.

Jet has actually taken a total of 1.5 billion euros of charges on. satellite production losses in recent quarters. Plane and. Thales did not immediately react to ask for comment.

Aschbacher informed Reuters recently that Europe's space. market required the muscle to contend internationally, warning Europe. risks falling back in the new space race.

(source: Reuters)