Belgium has thrown its weight behind Europe’s space ambitions at a moment when public spending at home remains under strain, prompting questions about why extraterrestrial projects still command political support.
At last month’s European Space Agency council meeting in Bremen, the organisation’s 23 member states committed €22.1 billion to research and defence-related space programmes over the next three years.
Belgium will contribute €1.1 billion to that total, federal science minister Vanessa Matz announced, through subscriptions to a wide range of ESA initiatives spanning science, defence, and exploration.
The funding includes €114 million for designing and developing a future European launcher, €113 million for Earth observation programmes, and €205 million for scientific research missions.
A further €110 million will be directed toward space exploration, while €316 million has been earmarked for defence-related projects, such as telecommunications satellites vital for security and resilience.
Just over half of the defence-related spending will come directly from Belgium’s defence budget, reflecting the increasingly blurred line between civilian research and strategic military assets in orbit.
“This is a key moment for the European space sector,” Matz said after the meeting, arguing that Europe must prioritise space even as budgets face pressure across the continent.
“With our growing dependence on space in all fields, Europe is showing unity by strengthening its sovereignty and strategic autonomy,” she added, framing the investment as geopolitical necessity rather than luxury.
Belgium, she said, benefits from a “rich and diverse ecosystem” capable of transforming public investment into research excellence, technological innovation, and private-sector growth.
The decision defied earlier fears within Belgium’s scientific community that the country might drastically reduce its commitment during a tense federal budget negotiation this autumn. Belgium lacks its own national space agency, unlike France or Italy, but has long punched above its weight in European space efforts.
As one of the ten founding members of the ESA in 1975, it is now the second-largest contributor per capita, surpassed only by Luxembourg. Before the Bremen meeting, concerns had grown that Belgium might cut its contribution nearly in half, limiting funding to around €445 million in the next ESA cycle.
Those fears prompted an open letter in the newspaper Le Soir, signed by scientists from both Flemish- and French-speaking institutions, urging the federal government to maintain spending.
Severe cuts, they warned, could force Belgium to withdraw from flagship missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope or ESA’s Euclid mission studying dark matter and dark energy. “Entire teams of researchers and engineers with unique expertise could disappear,” the letter cautioned, warning of an irreversible brain drain from Belgian science.
The scientific community has repeatedly stressed that space investment yields substantial economic returns, countering arguments that it diverts funds from pressing domestic needs. In a separate letter last year, Belgium’s ten Federal Scientific Establishments stated that every euro invested via the ESA generates €4.35 for Belgian industry.
Those returns, they said, indirectly support more than 3,500 jobs across aerospace engineering, data services, and advanced manufacturing sectors. Matz echoed those arguments earlier this year, telling Le Soir that cutting Belgium’s ESA contribution amid geopolitical tensions would be “heresy”.
Although the federal government reduced overall scientific research funding, a budget agreement reached just before the ESA meeting enabled a 13% increase in Belgium’s space contribution.
According to official figures, Belgium’s space sector includes more than 100 companies, nine universities, and 13 research institutes working on satellite technology, robotics, and data analysis.
Beyond economics, political leaders also point to the symbolic and strategic value of space exploration for a country without a national agency but with global ambitions. That visibility was underscored in 2022, when Raphaël Liégeois from Namur was selected as one of ESA’s new career astronauts.
Liégeois is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in 2027, a milestone often cited by officials as proof Belgium’s sustained influence in Europe’s space future.
This article was created using automation technology and was thoroughly edited and fact-checked by one of our editorial staff members
