What Does Brexit Imply For Britain’s Participation In European Space Programs?

The British vote on June 23 to leave the European Union (EU) will be a transition that will reportedly take place over the next two years. However, Brexit raises numerous questions about Britain's role in Europe space programs and future consequences.

According to a report, there are a multitude of issues that will affect the British and European Space Policy, especially since Britain's space expenditure sees three-quarters of its funds going to the European Space Agency (ESA). However, Director-General Johann-Dietrich Woerner of ESA reportedly feels that Britain leaving EU will have little or no impact on its programs. Incidentally, the 22 nation ESA is not an EU organization and comprises of full time members like Switzerland and Norway that are not in EU. ESA associate member Canada is also not part of EU. At the same time it should be noted that certain ESA programs are join initiatives with the EU, such as the Copernicus program that provides information on several issues, including oil drilling opportunities to climate change. In addition, once the satellites are in space they are owned by EU.

Europe's global navigation satellite system Galileo will also pose a problem with Brexit, because though it is owned by the European Commision (EC), its main contractor for payload electronics happens to be the British Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL). Britain has played a central role so far in the Galileo program; therefore it is unclear what Brexit would spell for the country's position in the satellite initiative.

In addition, one can look toward Norway to understand some of the issues that Britain could soon face. Until now, Britain has taken part in the Public Regulated Service that offers encrypted and protected signals for government and military customers, and Norway even with a security treaty does not have access to the service. Therefore, questions are arising regarding Britain's future position for the same.

In recent years, the space industry of Britain has been growing much faster than its economy, and numerous companies both in the EU, Canada and US have been developing British divisions to get an inroad into ESA and EU space project funding. Britain's chunk of global space commerce was expected to reach 10 percent by 2023, from the current 6.5 percent. Now, with Britain exiting the EU it is unclear how the policy will impact British market share and investments from other nations.

This is not all, there are more questions related to Britain's stance in ESA programs after Brexit, especially as far as satellite fleet operators are concerned. For instance, French Eutelsat has based its Quantum flexible payload satellite program in Britain, and though the project is funded by ESA, the capital comes from Britain. Eutelsat's Broadband for Africa project, which is in collaboration with Facebook, is also housed in Britain and so is the company's Global Government division.

The answers to all the queries regarding the impact of Brexit on Britain's participation in ESA programs are lacking at the moment. However, many of the issues will have to be soon evaluated and resolved as Britain prepares to leave the EU, according to a report in Space News.