It's not obvious that the EU has the innovation ability or startup culture necessary to compete with spacex. For example in the whole of the EU, Spotify is the only company less than 25 years old and with a market cap over $50b.
onlypassingthru 17 minutes ago [-]
What makes you think this will be a public company? Starshield is for militaries and there is one almost European country that has a booming (literally) startup scene.
waffletower 47 minutes ago [-]
I think this is happening to promote Musk's biographical documentary which opens in U.S. theaters October 16th. :D
wil421 2 hours ago [-]
Europe will take years and fight over what member will make what piece. It’s the same problem NASA has when senators what to spread the job making program to their states.
The EU telcos will sweep up spectrum to inhibit new entrants from becoming successful. An EU rocket/satellite marker should be doing all of this.
ch_sm 1 hours ago [-]
Sure, it’s not easy, but GALILEO shows projects like this are possible and can be successful in the E.U.
weinzierl 1 hours ago [-]
Like GLONASS, GALILEO was planned as a sovereign GNSS, but the US used their diplomatic power to convince the European Commission to make it "optimized for interoperability"[1].
It's likely that we will see an European Starlink but only an "interoperable" one. A cost sharing and robustness measure. Not a sovereign European system.
It's pretty clear that electing the pumpkin twice has dispelled any notions about the US's reliability as a long-term partner. Sure, the next US president will extend a hand in solidarity, but the Europeans can't rely on that happening every 4 years any longer. I think most have figured that out.
onlypassingthru 1 hours ago [-]
Now that Starshield has proven vital to survival in a war, see: Ukraine this week, it's inevitable that the EU will pass legislation mandating its creation. This is not business as usual. The Baltics, Nordics, Poland and others are going to push for building it now.
mamonster 1 hours ago [-]
We heard the same thing about the Draghi report and not much got done.
The big problem with satellite stuff in EU is that the quickest way to get it done is via France/Germany/Italy, but as you noted the guys pushing the hardest for it are gonna be the Baltics and Poland.
A greenfield satellite program is very hard to do.
onlypassingthru 23 minutes ago [-]
The long term answer is Ukraine will become the European Starshield provider but they need to leverage other countries' money and launch assets to get there in the short and medium term.
Bordering on war crimes as Russia was able to launch missile attacks on civilian infrastructure without warning.
guywithahat 49 minutes ago [-]
As the article states there's no reason to think Starlink temporarily slowed down their internet service deliberately. Elon has been a strong supporter of the Ukrainian side, donating hundreds of millions to them and risking retaliation from Russia against their satellites. I understand why they're upset, people can die when their internet is disrupted, but the article seems especially hostile for what is likely a bugged update or Russian interference on their military-grade service.
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-telecom-giants-team-up-ag...
The EU telcos will sweep up spectrum to inhibit new entrants from becoming successful. An EU rocket/satellite marker should be doing all of this.
It's likely that we will see an European Starlink but only an "interoperable" one. A cost sharing and robustness measure. Not a sovereign European system.
[1] https://www.gps.gov/news/joint-statement-galileo-and-gps-sig...
The big problem with satellite stuff in EU is that the quickest way to get it done is via France/Germany/Italy, but as you noted the guys pushing the hardest for it are gonna be the Baltics and Poland.
A greenfield satellite program is very hard to do.