Europe's satellite ambitions demand more than money alone
Source: International homepage (paywall)
Europe's proposed Iris satellite constellation faces a fundamental resource problem beyond its €10 billion budget: the continent lacks the industrial capacity, supply chains, and launch infrastructure that SpaceX built over two decades. Even if EU nations commit capital, they'll need to simultaneously resurrect dormant aerospace capabilities and accept years of dependence on US or foreign launch providers. That dependency undercuts the geopolitical autonomy the project claims to achieve. The binding constraint isn't funding but execution speed and political willingness to back European launch companies through their development phase.