Europe should “raise its level of ambition” to try to have greater autonomy in human access to space, both for a question of economic growth and geopolitical positioning on the international scene. This is what Samantha Cristoforetti, astronaut of the European Space Agency, said in the ceremony at Palazzo Clerici for the awarding of the ISPI 2022 prize, awarded jointly with Fabiola Gianotti, director general of CERN, for the contribution given to strengthening Italy’s image in the world.
In her speech, AstroSamantha underlined how the advent of private individuals in the field of human spaceflight is marking “an epochal change”. In the last 20 years “astronauts have never had to cut a check to buy flights, which instead were accrued, like Italy and Europe, by virtue of the contributions made to the International Space Station program”.
Today, however, with the intergovernmental program of the ISS probably destined to end in 2030 and the advent of the new private space stations, “we risk going back 20 years, to when we too, like Italy, had to buy flights. It is therefore not the case of raising the level of ambition to have a more autonomous ability to access space? Do we want to remain passengers or do we want to start being protagonists?” asks Cristoforetti, underlining the gap that separates Europe from the other world powers that already have access autonomous to space (like the US and Russia) or are building it (like China and India).
“An ambitious program of human space exploration can be game-changing not only for astronaut flights, but for the wider influence it can have in terms of peace, security, cooperation, prosperity, industrial capability and inspiration for youth.”
Also with regard to the Space Economy, AstroSam observes that “Europe is not in a terrible state, but it is risking a lot: the market is growing rapidly and the risk is that we will only be left with crumbs”.
Source: Ansa
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