Comment by elthor89

I think Galileo is an example of how the EU with ESA can create an alternative to a critical US capability. At the same time it is also an example how difficult it is, on a financial, political and commercial level.

The US wasn’t happy with it and tried to put pressure not to proceed. In hindsight , It’s good that it did got into orbit.

ESA tends to favour French, Italian and German big state owned corporations rather than small start ups. So it will always be a political thing and slow.

There just isn’t a company in the EU that can operate like Elon Musk. Even if there was imagine a European company ceo holding that power. How would they use it, can they be coerced by EU countries? Should such a capability be in private hands at all?