Europe and its space industry have been essential to the success of Artemis 2, the first crewed mission to the Moon in over half a century. The engines that propelled the four astronauts to the lunar surface and back safely were part of the European Service Module (ESM), Europe’s major contribution to this U.S.-led program. The systems that kept them alive for 10 days, such as the oxygen, water, and heat supply aboard a spacecraft traversing deep space at temperatures around -270 degrees Celsius, are also part of this module. And then there were the solar panels, without which the mission would have lacked power.

Despite this enormous success for European industry, the crew’s return marks a moment of uncertainty regarding what will happen in the coming years. The European Space Agency (ESA) is one of the United States’ main partners in the Artemis program to land astronauts on the lunar surface in 2028 and colonize the Moon in 2032. But the U.S. space agency has just completely changed its plans, putting a multi-million euro project on hold: the construction of a space station in lunar orbit, Gateway, in which the Europeans were to play a leading role.

NASA’s current plans involve landing directly on the lunar surface, without creating orbital facilities. This means that Gateway’s first module, Halo, will not be launched. Europe also had multi-million dollar contracts for I-Hab, the station’s second module. This project is now also scrapped, while NASA aims to land on the Moon’s south pole and build habitable bases and nuclear fission power plants to provide energy during the long, frigid nights, which last about 14 Earth days. With this plan, the United States seeks to beat China, which aims to reach the Moon by 2030, and prepare from there for the future arrival of astronauts to Mars.

One of the companies involved in the construction of the European module is Crisa, based in Tres Cantos, near Madrid in Spain. It is a subsidiary of Airbus, the prime contractor for the European Service Module. Crisa is responsible for the European Service Module’s thermal control unit, the electronic “brain” that controls the temperature and humidity inside the Orion spacecraft. This device, valued at approximately €4 million ($4.7 million), is installed in all modules. The approximate value of each European module is around €200 million ($235 million).

Airbus Crisa facilities in Tres Cantos, Madrid.Jaime Villanueva

Fernando Gómez Carpintero, CEO of Crisa, explains to EL PAÍS: “The unit we supplied provides 1.4 kilowatts, which is roughly the power needed to heat a small room in deep space.” This is the first time in history that NASA has entrusted critical components—on which the lives of its astronauts depend—to non-U.S. companies. For Gómez Carpintero, this is a source of pride. “They came to us from the United States to buy this technology. There is trust, but we have to continue earning it,” he adds. Like the other European contractors, the company is now awaiting details on how NASA’s new plans will affect them, as Crisa is also responsible for creating the entire electrical system of the first module of the canceled Gateway space station.

“The ESM has been able to take humanity back to the Moon with exquisite precision and performance,” Gómez Carpintero emphasizes. The operation of the control unit has also been flawless. “Humanity is returning to the Moon, and it’s thanks to Europe,” he explains. The engineer is optimistic about the future, despite the change of plans and the uncertainty: “What I see are many opportunities.”

Fernando Gómez Carpintero, CEO of Airbus Crisa, at the company’s headquarters in Tres Cantos, Madrid.Jaime Villanueva

The message from the space agency and the U.S. government is that it wants to return to the Moon in partnership with corporations, not governments. The main contractors that will build the spacecraft to land on the Moon are two rival firms: Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. According to the new plans, Artemis 3 will be a crewed mission to test docking with these landers. Artemis 4, in 2028, would be the first lunar landing, and Artemis 5 possibly the second, although NASA has not yet provided details. All of this depends on the aforementioned space companies delivering their landers on time, which seems increasingly uncertain.

The feeling in Europe is one of having been left behind. The space sector operates with multi-year plans. To get a sense of the timeframes, the European space module began its design phase in 2013. The first unit, which flew into space on the unmanned Artemis 1 mission with great success in 2022, was completed and delivered in 2019.

The day before the launch of the Artemis 2, this newspaper spoke at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center with two senior executives from Airbus, the prime European contractor for the service module, who expressed their doubts about the future. “The modules for Artemis 3 and 4 are already in the Neil Armstrong Building at Kennedy Space Center [from where NASA launches its space missions],” said Justin Byrne, head of space exploration at Airbus, the prime contractor for the module. The modules for Artemis 5 and 6 are already being built in Europe. And beyond? “It’s a bit uncertain,” he acknowledged, adding that it would be difficult to understand NASA discarding this major component, as well as the Orion spacecraft itself, given that both have proven to be the only available options for safely transporting astronauts into deep space. “If you look at the new launch schedule NASA wants, it’s considerably longer than the previous one. We wonder how any additional service module that starts being designed from scratch now could be ready in just two years. We believe the ESM and the Orion capsule will play a role, but the entire mission architecture will likely change depending on whether we ultimately fly with Starship or Blue Origin,” he explained.

Mark Steckling, head of Space Observation and Exploration at Airbus, said that “in theory” the ESM could work with other spacecraft designed by SpaceX or Blue Origin, but he didn’t see much point in it. “The Orion capsule is a masterpiece of technology,” he said, adding, “Why change something we know works?”

These two executives also discussed the abandonment of Gateway. Steckling believes the ball is now in the European Space Agency’s court. “We are just companies, and of course, we follow the ESA,” he explains, referring to NASA’s new program. “I think this is now a job for the space agencies to see what role we can play. It’s also a question for Europe: how ambitious are we? It’s also a task for Josef Aschbacher [ESA’s Director General] to remind everyone that we Europeans have good technology and that we can contribute in this new phase,” he adds.

The last time the Trump administration tried to cancel the Gateway lunar station, Congress forced it to keep the project alive with massive funding. The U.S. Congress also blocked the drastic budget cuts Trump wanted for NASA, particularly its science program. Now history has repeated itself, and the president is again calling for a drastic reduction in the space agency’s budget, while sparing the crewed space exploration program. Ultimately, Congress will decide. In fact, Congress is one of Europe’s greatest hopes for ensuring the continued operation of the Gateway station and all the multi-million dollar contracts associated with it.

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