Europe’s Space Industry Seeks Greater Supply Chain Control

What it means for hiring

Kate Underhill of the European Space Agency has set out the supply chain problems facing European space. Radiation-tolerant processors still rest on the SPARC-based LEON family ESA started in 1997, space electronics runs at least ten years behind consumer technology, and small orders are hard to place: ESA once needed 20 laser diodes from a supplier with a 10,000 unit minimum. ITAR rules constrain European satellite builders, and a proposed EU restriction on PFAS threatens the seals in cryogenic systems, where alternatives would take five to seven years. Meanwhile Europe is planning the 348-satellite IRIS² constellation and a higher launch cadence for Ariane 6 and Vega-C.

Europe wants more of its space hardware made in Europe at the same moment as it is ordering more of it, and both depend on a small number of engineers. Radiation-hardened chip design, space-qualified components, and materials and qualification engineers who can replace a banned substance without restarting a programme are scarce. Primes and their suppliers are competing with defence, which has bigger budgets this year. Employers that can offer engineers from automotive or industrial electronics a clear route into qualified space work will have an advantage, because waiting for ready-made space experience will take too long.

Read the original at EE Times .