What is the Appropriate Role of Governments in Future Space Transportation? A European Industrialist Point of View

Abstract

Space launchers were developed initially under purely governmental funding for strategic and/or political reasons. Now the situation is evolving, the trend being to bring in more private funding in various ways.

AEROSPATIALE MATRA LANCEURS as a launcher designer and developer is especially interested in assessing the role of governments in the process. A recent European example and other in-house studies have shown that it is economically impossible for a private company to fund fully a new launcher; analysis of non-European approaches confirms this fact. European governments must therefore continue to play their supporting role along three lines: maintenance of the present competitiveness of existing expendable launchers, possible support of complementary expendable launchers if politically justified, and investment in new technologies to open the way to really cost-effective vehicles (reusable or not).