Responsive Space Launch: The Industrial Architecture of European Space Resilience

European defence planning now treats space as a domain exposed to attrition, disruption and deliberate attack, rather than as a protected environment guaranteed by distance and deterrence alone. Anti-satellite tests, persistent jamming, cyber intrusions and hybrid actions against space-enabled infrastructure have made clear that the loss or degradation of orbital assets is no longer a remote contingency.

For Europe and its allies, this has direct operational consequences. Space-based positioning, navigation and timing, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and secure communications underpin almost every modern military activity.

This analysis answers: Why does European defence now treat space as a contested domain exposed to attrition, and what operational imperative drives responsive launch? How can diversifying launch infrastructure move from vulnerable bottlenecks to a distributed, resilient launch posture? Which Tier-1 launch integrators, niche suppliers and dependency nodes make up the launch industrial ecosystem? What policy and finance signals could build a resilient European launch posture?