6–7 minutes

WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency is putting the final touches on a package of programs worth 22 billion euros ($25.6 billion) for next month’s ministerial conference, despite U.S. budget uncertainty and the removal of one mission from consideration.

At an Oct. 23 briefing after a meeting of the ESA Council, agency leaders said they had nearly completed the package of programs for the next three years that will be proposed to member states at the ministerial conference Nov. 26-27 in Bremen, Germany.

“The overall spirit of all the member states was extremely constructive and positive,” Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s director general, said of the council discussions. “We still have a lot of work to do. This is normal in the final stretch of preparing the ministerial package.”

He did not go into details but said the overall size of the three-year package has remained “more or less unchanged” at about 22 billion euros. “Not everything is resolved yet,” he said, noting another council meeting is planned for Nov. 7 to finalize open issues.

One change is that ESA has dropped an Earth science mission previously included in the package. Aschbacher said ESA removed the Traceable Radiometry Underpinning Terrestrial- and Helio-Studies, or TRUTHS, mission from consideration for “affordability reasons.” TRUTHS was designed to calibrate climate models by precisely measuring both incoming and reflected solar radiation.

The United Kingdom, which had been the leading backer of TRUTHS, reportedly withdrew its support for the mission after a recent spending review.

There are also uncertainties about NASA funding for science and exploration projects ESA is participating in and seeking support for at the ministerial. NASA’s fiscal 2026 budget request, released in May, proposed canceling the lunar Gateway and ending Orion after Artemis 3, as well as canceling science missions such as Mars Sample Return (MSR) and NASA’s contributions to the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover.

In June, Aschbacher said he hoped a final NASA budget would be completed before the ministerial. That is now almost certain not to happen, although House and Senate spending bills would override many of the proposed cuts. A budget reconciliation bill enacted in July also provided funding for Gateway and additional Orion missions.

“We all know very well that budget decisions have yet to be made in the United States. We are eagerly awaiting those,” Aschbacher said. “It’s difficult to speculate what those decisions will be.”

He said that for Gateway and the Orion service module, ESA is pressing ahead. However, he noted that ESA considers it unlikely that NASA will continue MSR, for which ESA is developing the Earth Return Orbiter to bring the sample container back to Earth. “We are preparing backup solutions” that could convert the orbiter into a standalone Mars mission, he said.

He added that he expects NASA to continue supporting the Rosalind Franklin rover, which includes providing braking thrusters for the lander, radioisotope heating units and a launch. The Senate’s appropriations bill includes funding for those contributions, but the House version does not explicitly mention them.

ESA also faces internal funding challenges. France, one of ESA’s largest contributors, has not finalized its budget amid government upheaval. “France is really making every effort to find funding,” Aschbacher said. “There is no lack of energy and dedication to find good solutions. There’s still five weeks to go.”

He said ESA subjected proposed projects to independent reviews by the agency’s inspector general to identify potential programmatic or budget issues. Those reviews resulted in about 400 recommendations that have all been implemented ahead of the ministerial.

However, Aschbacher said it is unlikely that all projects will be funded at their desired levels. “This is my proposal as director general, which is put on the table for ministers to subscribe,” he said. “Of course, the ministers subscribe as they feel fit.”

Experience from past ministerials, he said, shows that about 93% to 95% of the proposed package is typically funded. “It is normal that never 100% of a proposal of a director general is subscribed.” Thoughts on Project Bromo

The briefing took place hours after Airbus, Leonardo and Thales announced an agreement to combine their space businesses into a joint venture codenamed Project Bromo. The new company would employ about 25,000 people and generate 6.5 billion euros in annual revenue, pending regulatory approval expected to take up to two years.

The joint venture has implications for ESA. Much of Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space, two of ESA’s largest contractors, would be combined in the joint venture. That could reduce competition on future ESA procurements.

“We have been reflecting on this,” Aschbacher said when asked for the agency’s view of the joint venture, which has been in negotiations since last year. “It is clear that this will have an impact.”

He said ESA plans to conduct a detailed assessment of the joint venture and its implications for the agency, but not until after the ministerial conference.

He downplayed the potential loss of competition. “It’s not a matter of concern. ESA has, over 50 years, always been adapting to changes in the ecosystem,” he said. “We will make sure that our European industry at large — big, small and medium-sized companies — will succeed, and we will take measures to help them succeed.”

“Am I worried? No, I’m not worried,” he said. “I think it’s very good news. It’s interesting news. We see new challenges coming, and we will tackle them head-on and make sure that Europe becomes even stronger than before.”

4–5 minutes

WASHINGTON — Hungary has become the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords, outlining norms of behavior for sustainable space exploration.

In a social media post Oct. 22, NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy said Hungary signed the Accords, becoming the 57th nation to do so and the fifth this year, following Finland, Bangladesh, Norway and Senegal.

“Their decision to join the Artemis Accords affirms a shared commitment to peaceful, transparent exploration — at a time when others seek to weaponize the final frontier,” Duffy wrote.

That post was the only formal announcement of the signing. NASA is not issuing press releases or social media updates during the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1. The State Department, which typically announces Artemis Accords signings, also had not published a statement as of late Oct. 22, nor had Hungary’s Foreign Ministry.

The announcement coincided with a visit by Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó to the United States. A one-paragraph readout from the State Department about Szijjártó’s meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Oct. 22 did not mention the Artemis Accords.

The signing comes a few weeks after 39 of the then-56 signatory nations met during the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, Australia, to discuss progress in implementing the accords and strategies for encouraging more countries to sign on.

“We want more people to join us and explore with us,” Amit Kshatriya, NASA associate administrator, said at a briefing after the meeting. “But when resources are constrained, how do you make sure that emerging spacefaring nations are able to participate in this incredible adventure?”

Hungary is a member of both the European Union and the European Space Agency (ESA) but has occasionally chosen to act independently in space partnerships. While ESA members Sweden and Poland worked through ESA to fly astronauts to the International Space Station on Axiom Space private astronaut missions, Hungary arranged directly with Axiom the flight of a Hungarian astronaut on the Ax-4 mission earlier this year.

Despite the name, the Artemis Accords are not directly tied to the NASA-led Artemis lunar exploration campaign: signing the Accords, for example, does not guarantee that a country will be a part of the initiative. However, some associate the success of the Accords to that of Artemis itself.

“The expansion of the Artemis Accords continues to be a win for a future in space that reflects American values of peace, transparency and safety. However, the success of the accords is inextricably linked to the success of the Artemis program,” Mike Gold, president of civil and international space at Redwire and a former NASA official who led development of the Accords more than five years ago, told SpaceNews.

“Thanks to the passionate support of leaders such as Sen. Ted Cruz and Secretary Sean Duffy for Artemis and beating China to the moon, I’m confident that we can lead not just in technology but in policy,” he added.