France, Sept. 19 -- Europe is already a major space power. It builds satellites and launches them on European rockets, and operates Copernicus, one of the world's leading Earth observation programmes, which uses satellites to monitor the planet's climate and environment.

But Europe does not have its own capability to launch astronauts into orbit.

"We want Europe to assert its ambition in crewed spaceflight," Macron said at an international space summit he hosted in Paris last week, calling for Europe to develop its own crewed capsule within 10 years. A changing space sector

The proposal marks a shift in Europe's approach to space as the sector becomes increasingly industrialised and the United States and China invest heavily, notably i...