Airbus CEO says SpaceX would not pass anti-trust test in Europe

By Ilona Wissenbach

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Elon Musk's hugely successful rockets-to-satellites SpaceX venture would raise anti-trust concerns if it had to operate in Europe, the head of aerospace group Airbus said on Thursday.

SpaceX's insurgent Falcon 9 rocket has slashed launch costs by introducing reusable rocketry into the commercial industry, enabling deployment of the company's fast-growing Starlink constellation, now tallied at nearly 7,000 satellites in orbit. 

By contrast, Europe's flagship Ariane 6 launcher, which is partly built by Airbus, has yet to stage its first commercial flight after a long-delayed test flight in July. It plans some 10 flights a year, a fraction of the pace at SpaceX.

"I think what the Americans and what SpaceX have done is amazing. It's amazing and it's breaking some rules of what we're doing. It's very concentrated, where with European projects we are very scattered and distributed," Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said.

"So it's launchers, satellites, manufacturing, operating the constellation. And that's a super-concentrated model that actually in Europe we are not allowed to think of, for anti-trust rules," he told an aviation event in Frankfurt.

Backed by Europe's leading space-funding nations such as France, Airbus and other manufacturers have long complained that Europe's space industry is hampered by rules requiring work to be shared between countries involved in funding Ariane.

By contrast, SpaceX is free to decide where to invest and manufactures 80% of what it needs, Faury said.

"In Europe, we tend to do the ... opposite. We make 20%, we buy 80%. And by buying 80%, you have a large supply base which is pleasing everybody. Well, Elon Musk's space is not pleasing anybody except Elon Musk," Faury said.

SpaceX did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

EUROPE NEEDS TO ADAPT

Despite expressing concerns over the concentration of SpaceX activities, Faury said Europe must find a way to adapt. 

Airbus is in the midst of cutting 2,500 jobs in loss-making satellite projects. Its rival, defence and technology company Thales (EPA:), is also cutting 1,300 jobs.

"(SpaceX) is a super-competitive model. It is re-challenging what we're doing now in launchers," Faury said.

"If we don't move in launchers and in satellites, if we just stay with where we are, we're going to be obsolete."

Starlink and its rapid deployment have disrupted the satellite communications industry and helped shape modern military strategies in orbit. 

NASA plans to use SpaceX to land humans on the moon this decade, a relationship that could blossom under President-elect Donald Trump. In May, Reuters reported that SpaceX had been picked to build a constellation of U.S. spy satellites.

NASA and Pentagon officials have expressed concerns, privately and sometimes publicly, that the U.S. relies too much on SpaceX for critical capabilities, and have sought to stimulate launch and satellite competition. 

But anti-trust concerns among SpaceX competitors have so far gained little traction.

SpaceX advocates and Musk supporters argue that the company has simply developed innovative, commercially risky technologies that its rivals have been unwilling to do.