Finding space for the European Space Agency

Europe has an interesting history on space policy, drawing on varied agencies through which to pursue its space ambitions since the end of WWII. The best known, and until recently most important, of these is the European Space Agency (ESA), an intergovernmental non-EU institution which oversaw the development of Galileo, Copernicus and EGNOS. Since 2021, a second agency, The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), has been in place, taking over the running of the EU’s space Programmes and flagship constellations from the GSA in Prague. This paper discusses the potential future of Europe's institutions for space, and critically analyses Thomas Hoerber's 2022 suggestion that ESA should become a Space University Institute.