During the press event at the Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Summit, a European journalist commented on the prevalence of American teams and asked, "Where are the European teams?"

A European Commissioner provided one very powerful answer to that question in mid-June, shortly after EADS-Astrium announced that its spaceplane failed to attract the necessary investments. In response to this turn of events, the views expressed by European Commission Vice President Guenter Verheugen speak volumes about the attitudes of the European political establishment toward entrepreneurial space activity (NewSpace). Referring to public remarks by Guenter, Astrium Chief Executive Francois Auque said, "I was even told that this project was morally blameworthy because it targets an audience of the rich people."*

How stunningly stultified and non-visionary! Perhaps Mr. Verheugen doesn't recall that the first VCR's and DVD players cost over US$1000, or that the first cell phones were quite expensive, or that the first years of train and airline service were not exactly affordable by the masses. Perhaps he doesn't understand that it is this "audience of rich people" that provide the first market for so many new products and services, and thus the revenue stream that supports further product development, competition, and lower prices. Or, perhaps he does know all this yet simply has some vague negative toward wealthy people. I don't know, having never met the man (I would welcome a conversation). What I do know is that his comments are absolutely absurd when you consider his title: European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry. How can he be responsible for growing European enterprise and industry and yet be so cavalier about two primary drivers of economic growth; an emerging industry and wealthy consumers? Perhaps it's because his career of more than three decades has been one of political rather than business experience.

After writing the above, I asked for comments from a colleague who is engaged with the European space community. He replied that it isn't that Europe is handing NewSpace to American entrepreneurs, but that Europe does not even understand that NewSpace is developing and rapidly growing. He believes that the EADS-Astrium spaceplane was probably conceived by a handful of "polytechnicians" obsessed by the idea of emulating the Americans. Furthermore, these "polytechnicians" are not well trained to pay attention to required capabilities, related costs, and time schedule.

What does this mean for the future of Europe in space? Will this competition unleash the USS Free Enterprise, with a far more American crew than we saw on the bridge of Star Trek's Enterprise? And if NewSpace is the future of humanity in space, will Europe be able to compete?

I hope that journalist returned to his PC and wrote his own article asking, "Where are the Europeans?" And I hope it creates a stir, because the more commercial competition in space, the better.

(Adapted from my two original postings at www.jeffkrukin.com [1])
(*From the June 13 issue of Space News)