Due to the importance of space for our everyday lives, which is difficult to overestimate, CASSIS will address the question of the extent to which Europe needs autonomous access to space from a strategic point of view in the 6-month study. The answer to this question is highly controversial in the European space industry. In order to take account of the thematic complexity of the initial question, three different scenarios regarding Europe's access to space are used to answer the question and compared with each other in terms of the respective pros and cons. In addition to the extensive literature research, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a large number of experts in order to adequately answer the question. Experts from the fields of science, industry, military & security, civilian public users and international experts in the form of members of other national space agencies will be interviewed. This approach allows different perspectives to be taken into account in the best possible way, which in turn enables a more nuanced answer to the question. The aim of this project is to determine which of the three different scenarios is best suited to Europe's access to space from a strategic perspective. The implementation of the project “Europe's Technological Sovereignty in Space” is being supported by the German Space Agency with almost 17,000 euros.
With the political science expertise of CASSIS and the space policy expertise of the Space Agency, among others, the study offers the unique opportunity to approach the scientific answer to the question of Europe's strategically autonomous access to space in a fruitful cooperation between science and practice. CASSIS is not working on behalf of the space agency and is free to draw its own conclusions. The study is conducted independently and solely according to scientific standards.