At a summit in Spain this week, officials from the European Space Agency (ESA) laid out bold ambitions: to become a more autonomous player in a burgeoning new space race, and to develop an American-style private space industry. But could the next SpaceX really be a European firm? It is clear that much work lies ahead. 

Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, travels to ESA’s Paris headquarters to meet its director general, Josef Aschbacher.

Essential listening, from our archive:

“The race to the Moon's South Pole”, August 16th 2023

“Hunting for life elsewhere—part two, JUICE”, April 12th 2023

“The private Moon race”, January 25th 2023

“NASA's newish rocket”, August 23rd 2022

“A Starship is born”, February 15th 2022

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