Airbus CEO says SpaceX would not pass anti-trust test

15/11/2024 6:06

        Elon Musk's hugely
        successful rockets-to-satellites SpaceX venture would raise
        anti-trust concerns if it had to operate in Europe, the head of
        aerospace group Airbus said on Thursday.
        
        SpaceX's insurgent Falcon 9 rocket has slashed launch costs
        by introducing reusable rocketry into the commercial industry,
        enabling deployment of the company's fast-growing Starlink
        constellation, now tallied at nearly 7,000 satellites in orbit.
        By contrast, Europe's flagship Ariane 6 launcher, which is
        partly built by Airbus, has yet to stage its first
        commercial flight after a long-delayed test flight in July. It
        plans some 10 flights a year, a fraction of the pace at SpaceX.
        
        "I think what the Americans and what SpaceX have done is
        amazing. It's amazing and it's breaking some rules of what we're
        doing. It's very concentrated, where with European projects we
        are very scattered and distributed," Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury
        said.
        
        "So it's launchers, satellites, manufacturing, operating the
        constellation. And that's a super-concentrated model that
        actually in Europe we are not allowed to think of, for
        anti-trust rules," he told an aviation event in Frankfurt.
        
        Backed by Europe's leading space-funding nations such as
        France, Airbus and other manufacturers have long complained that
        Europe's space industry is hampered by rules requiring work to
        be shared between countries involved in funding Ariane.
        
        By contrast, SpaceX is free to decide where to invest and
        manufactures 80% of what it needs, Faury said.
        
        "In Europe, we tend to do the ... opposite. We make 20%, we
        buy 80%. And by buying 80%, you have a large supply base which
        is pleasing everybody. Well, Elon Musk's space is not pleasing
        anybody except Elon Musk," Faury said.
        
        SpaceX did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
        
        
        
        EUROPE NEEDS TO ADAPT
        
        Despite expressing concerns over the concentration of SpaceX
        activities, Faury said Europe must find a way to adapt.
        
        Airbus is in the midst of cutting 2,500 jobs in loss-making
        satellite projects. Its rival, defence and technology company
        Thales, is also cutting 1,300 jobs.
        
        "(SpaceX) is a super-competitive model. It is re-challenging
        what we're doing now in launchers," Faury said.
        
        "If we don't move in launchers and in satellites, if we just
        stay with where we are, we're going to be obsolete."
        
        Starlink and its rapid deployment have disrupted the
        satellite communications industry and helped shape modern
        military strategies in orbit.
        NASA plans to use SpaceX to land humans on the moon this decade,
        a relationship that could blossom under President-elect Donald
        Trump. In May, Reuters reported that SpaceX had been picked to
        build a constellation of U.S. spy satellites.
        
        NASA and Pentagon officials have expressed concerns,
        privately and sometimes publicly, that the U.S. relies too much
        on SpaceX for critical capabilities, and have sought to
        stimulate launch and satellite competition.
        
        But anti-trust concerns among SpaceX competitors have so far
        gained little traction.
        
        SpaceX advocates and Musk supporters argue that the company
        has simply developed innovative, commercially risky technologies
        that its rivals have been unwilling to do.