ESA chief calls for greater European space autonomy as trust in US partnership erodes

The head of the European Space Agency has issued a wakeup call to decision makers amid partners cancelling missions and geopolitical changes affecting the space sector, calling for Europeans to be pilots rather than passengers.In a LinkedIn post published last month, European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher stated that recent decisions taken by the United States to pause the lunar Gateway station and cancel the Mars Sample Return mission campaign — both major projects