With the Ariane 6 rocket four years late and Russia’s Soyuz off-limits, Europe has no guaranteed access to space. Competition commissioner Thierry Breton pledges to change that in the next EU space programme

As the first private mission to deliver instruments to the moon for NASA crashes back to earth, ESA gives further details of its plan to work with industry to develop an independent cargo return vehicle

With Europe’s launchers in crisis, a ‘paradigm shift’ in its relationship with industry will see the agency copy NASA in adopting a new procurement model in which it no longer owns and operates its own space vehicles

More investment will ensure Europe takes a share of the future space economy, Josef Aschbacher, told MEPs. The ambition is to see ‘European astronauts, on a European capsule, on a European rocket’

Moves to police the afterlife of satellites will open up the market for in-orbit servicing and removal. Meanwhile, the increasing risk of collisions is inspiring development of new space debris monitoring technologies

The race is on to be the first to launch a satellite from a base in Europe, but private space start-ups are finding it hard to get the investment they need for lift off -  and to build a competitive EU sector

The step up in funding is an opportunity to take a bigger role in ESA’s projects and grow Poland’s space sector. But the industry says without a national Polish space programme it will lack a sense of direction

But pandemic not sufficient reason to rip up green and digital research plans, executives say at Science|Business conference

European Space Agency director Johann-Dietrich Wörner talks to Science|Business about returning to the moon, and growing competition in a new spaceflight era

Money is part of €15B bailout for sector and includes the goal of speeding up development of carbon-neutral planes by 15 years