Space leaders from both sides of the Atlantic gathering for this week’s Farnborough International Airshow are primed to showcase partnerships outside the atmosphere.
From promoting space tourism to proposing new launch sites to setting up assembly lines to churn out small satellites, company and government space officials from the U.S. and Europe are pursuing intercontinental collaboration.
In the first such example at this year’s event, the U.K.’s space agency on Monday announced that Lockheed Martin Corp. won a $31 million contract to develop the country’s first spaceport, to be located on the north coast of Scotland. For two years, British authorities have weighed plans for such a site to blast satellites into orbit and offer a potential base for zero-gravity tourist flights.
The agency also wants Lockheed Martin to develop technology able to simultaneously deploy up to six small satellites, and is seeking another company to separately build a small rocket relying on fuel with reduced carbon emissions.
The U.K. agency said the goal is to establish Europe’s “first one-stop shop for building, launching and operating satellites” using rockets as well as innovative spaceplanes that take off like conventional aircraft. U.K. authorities hope to expand their market by negotiating legal and technical safeguards with Washington allowing various U.S. launch vehicles to blast off from British soil.
On Tuesday, heads of the European Space Agency and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration are expected to spell out cooperative efforts to send astronauts back to the moon, with the eventual goal of landing humans on Mars.
Leading up to the show, ESA took preliminary steps to develop complementary technology that could be used as part of a joint mission as soon as 2026 to grab samples from Mars and return them to earth. Airbus SE received study contracts geared to achieve that long-term scientific goal.
Over the years, Moscow and Washington managed to work closely together on space-related matters despite clashes over strategic issues. Now, industry and geopolitical experts are betting space can be similarly insulated from the broader discord roiling U.S.-European relations.
“As a practical matter so far,” space endeavors “generally have remained unrelated to what’s taking place with NATO and trade negotiations,” according to James McAleese, a Northern Virginia-based consultant. And that discord, he added, “isn’t likely to have much future impact on” the segment.
Collaboration between U.S. and European governments and companies have been gaining steam this year. Earlier this month, Virgin Galactic LLC, entrepreneur Richard Branson’s U.S. space-tourism startup, announced plans to build a new spaceport in Italy.
And last month, Scott Pace, the White House’s top space adviser, highlighted the importance of joining with other countries in both robotic and manned exploration. The U.S. wants “to have the largest club we can” to jointly explore the solar system, he told a federal space advisory committee.
Last week, the Aerospace Industries Association released a report indicating that U.S. aerospace and defense companies generated some $143 billion in 2017 exports and a positive trade balance of roughly $86 billion. That includes airlines and other nonspace products.
A panel discussion at the show is slated to provide Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, his first high-profile opportunity to explain a cooperative vision to a global audience and meet with a range of international space leaders. Since taking office three months ago, Mr. Bridenstine has stressed that to succeed with deep-space exploration, NASA needs to team up with commercial operators and other governments.
European space experts agree. During an international conference in Colorado in April, David Parker, ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration, said his agency’s institutional “DNA has national cooperation built in.”
A potential hurdle for collaboration, however, is an escalating public dispute between U.K. and European Union officials over Britain’s continued involvement in the partly-finished, multibillion-dollar Galileo satellite navigation constellation. A majority of EU member states want to block British firms from competing for the next round of business, while London is demanding a delay of contracts pending resolution of Brexit negotiations.
Write to Andy Pasztor at andy.pasztor@wsj.com