With the president’s launch of a new national space policy this fall, and the subsequent Chinese test of an ASAT missile, it seems the Europeans, and the French in particular, are feeling a bit left out of “the second global space race.” Peter B. de Selding, writing at Space.com, reports on a series of proposals from the French Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices. According to Selding, the committee’s report contains some 50 proposals ” to reinvigorate Europe’s civil and military space policy.” Among them:
* Sanctions should be imposed on any European government that does not give preference to European launch vehicles for its government civil and military satellites.
* France should begin preparing nuclear-powered satellites to permit deep-space exploration, using expertise at the French Atomic Energy Commission and in French industry.
* Europe’s heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket should be made capable of launching astronauts within five years.
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