Space for Collaboration:

Exploring a New Domain for the Transatlantic Alliance

· By Tony Silberfeld ·

The early actions of the second Donald Trump administration pose a direct threat to the future of the transatlantic relationship. There is no way to sugarcoat or “sane-wash” the dramatic pivot the United States has made. The country has shifted its support away from Ukraine and its NATO allies towards Moscow, and threatens tariffs on European partners. The impact on Washington’s most important political, economic and military relationships, which have endured for more than 80 years, is profound.

Following the ill-fated Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, lamented that the “free world needs a new leader”. This chasm between the United States and Europe may persist in the months to come on terrestrial matters, but there is still a theater in which the transatlantic relationship can thrive: space.

Our Interests in Orbit

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) began formal collaboration on human space flight missions in the 1970s. As this partnership evolved over the following two decades, the agencies worked together on scientific programs in space that deepened understanding of climate change, expanded communications networks, and explored the possibilities for humans to return to the moon and venture beyond.

NASA and ESA made a historic leap with the 1997 launch of their Cassini-Huygens mission, an effort conducted in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency. The project aimed to explore Saturn’s moon Titan using the Cassini orbiter provided by the United States and the Huygens probe developed by ESA. The collaboration resulted in the first-ever landing on a body in the distant reaches of our solar system, and unlocked the technology and resources for future exploration there. NASA and ESA built on their success to partner again on an array of missions to the international space station, and on the James Webb Telescope, the preeminent space observatory that can assess prospects for supporting human life on other planets.

AS NASA and ESA cooperated, however, a dramatic shift in space exploration occurred. Government agencies ceded their leadership to private-sector innovation. The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which resulted in the deaths of seven astronauts, was an inflection point. Congress reduced NASA funding and ended the shuttle program, and companies such as SpaceX and Boeing stepped in to fill the gap. Technological leaps in design, propulsion and reusable rockets cut the cost of launches from $1.6 billion in 2011, to $62 million today. Though U.S. companies dominate the sector, they are not alone. European outfits such as Arianespace, which plans six launches in 2025, Airbus and Thales, lead the development of another space ecosystem.

The combination of public and private entities on both sides of the Atlantic, working together in space, expands opportunities for scientific discovery, military innovation, and commercial gains in the decades ahead. NASA’s Jet Propulsion lab and ESA, for example, are collaborating on the EnVision project, which will analyze the environmental degradation of Venus to improve understanding of the impact of Earth’s climate catastrophes. ESA has made climate science a priority by investing in 2025 more than $2 billion, or about one-third of its entire budget, in Earth observation. On the military front, the U.S. government, with support from SpaceX, launched its next generation of spy satellites into orbit in 2024. Arianespace is now preparing to launch French reconnaissance satellites to bolster transatlantic intelligence gathering capability in low Earth orbit. But perhaps the most ambitious effort is the NASA-ESA-branded Artemis program, which has set its sights on going to the moon and staying there.

An Infinite Honeymoon

The Artemis program has geopolitical and commercial objectives. The space race, like so much else, has divided the world into competing blocs: one led by the United States, the other by China. Fifty-three countries, most of them traditional U.S. partners, have joined the Artemis Accords, which serves as the umbrella agreement under which signatories cooperate on lunar exploration. China, in response, created the International Lunar Research Station, which has attracted partners such as Russia, Venezuela and Belarus. The groups, with security in mind, are rushing to set up shop on the moon as their respective commercial companies plan for mining critical minerals on the lunar surface, harnessing solar energy, and manufacturing products in a low-gravity environment.

With this new rivalry in space comes the increased risk of hostilities among superpowers. Yet, for decades, all have made a concerted effort to delineate the terrestrial domain from space when it comes to confrontation and conflict. Earth is a no-holds-barred environment while space has been reserved as a common good for humanity. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 reflects this ethos by explicitly prohibiting weapons in space and limiting activity there to peaceful purposes, though this has been selectively ignored by many of the space powers. But as global instability increases, with fighting in Ukraine, the Middle East and parts of Africa, and insecurity grows in Asia and the Americas, the chances for Earth-bound strife spilling over into space rises, particularly as space-based assets are increasingly used to wage terrestrial war. Is there a way to stop this momentum, or does human nature make the outcome inevitable?

Lessons from the Heavens

Astronauts from every spacefaring nation have described a phenomenon known as the “Overview Effect”. It comes from the experience of observing the Earth from space as a beautiful, fragile blue marble that must be preserved, a celestial body set against an impossibly dark and infinite backdrop, a reminder of the singularity of the human race. It is precisely that perspective that permits American astronauts to hitch a ride on a Russian Soyuz rocket, sparks China’s recent willingness to cooperate with the West on spaceflight, and sustains conversations among political foes under the auspices of the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. But national governments worldwide still struggle to overcome innate urges for confrontation by conquering territory and exploiting its resources. Such behavior has tainted mankind throughout recorded history, but it need not define activities in space. The United States and Europe can lead the way given the persistent need and desire to bolster the transatlantic alliance in space even if the partnership frays on Earth. Both parties should work towards strengthening such ties. Building trust in space may just be able to rescue a relationship that has served mankind well since the last global conflagration nearly a century ago.