Space Security: Extending European Defence into Space

This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with Europe's future in space. Space has become a strategic domain of critical importance - not only for economic growth, but also for security and defence. To meet this urgent challenge, leading voices from politics, business, and science have contributed to this volume and outlined concrete measures - both immediate and strategic - that Europe must take to defend its security and interests in space. Forward bei Andrius Kubilius, EU Commissioner for Defence and Space. Authors: Dr. Josef Aschbacher, Director General European Space Agency (ESA); Dr. Balasz Bartoki-Gönczy, Vice Dean of the University of Public Administration, Budapest; Dr. Bohumil Dobos, Associate Professor Charles University Prague; Andreas Dripke, Executive Chairman Diplomatic Council; Dr. Enrico Fels, Managing Director CASSIS, University Bonn; Dr. Namrata Goswami, Professor for Space Security, John Hopkins University; Minister of State Florian Hahn, Federal Foreign Office, Member of the German Bundestag; Prof. Dr. Mahulena Hofmann, SES Chair in Space, SatCom and Media Law, University of Luxembourg; Prof. Dr. Heinrich Kreft, Ambassador (ret.) President Diplomatic Council, Program Director at the Diplomatic Academy of the German Foreign Office; Andrius Kubilius, EU Commissioner for Defence and Space; Dr. Ciro Maddaloni, Ministry for Innovation and Technologies (ret.); Hang Nguyen, Publisher Diplomatic Council; Dr. habil Antje Nötzold, Private Lecturer and Research Associate, Chemnitz University of Technology & University of the Federal Armed Forces; Dr. Almudena Azcarate Ortega, Lead Space Security Researcher & WMD Programmes, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research; Dr. Xavier Pasco, Director Fondation pour la Recherche Strategique, Paris; Clemence Poirier, Senior Researcher at ETH Zürich; Dr. Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, Lt.-Gen. (ret.), First Romanian in Space, former President of the Romanian Space Agency, full member of the International Academy of Astronautics; Juan Carlos Cortes Pulido, Director General of the Spanish Space Agency; Jochen M. Richter, Chairman Diplomatic Council Global Security Forum; Andrea Rotter, Head of Division Foreign and Security Policy, Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSS); Juliana Suess, Researcher, Security Policy Group, Strategic Threat Analysis and Nuclear (Dis-)Order Project, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP); Matthias Wachter, Managing Director NewSpace Initiative, BDI Head of Department International Cooperation, Security, Raw Materials, Space.

Commissioner Andrius Kubilius is a Member of the Euro­pean Commission responsible for De­fence and Space (since December 2024). He was a member of the Lithuanian Parliament from 1992 to 2019 and served twice as Prime Minister, from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012. Andrius Kubilius was a Member of the European Parliament from 2019 until December 2024, during which he chaired the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly (until July 2024).

Dr. Josef Aschbacher is the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) since March 2021. In 2023, his mandate was extended for a further period of four years until March 2029.

Matthias Wachter is the Managing Director of the German NewSpace Initiative and Head of International Cooperation, Security Policy, Raw Materials and Space at the Federation of German Industries (BDI). He is also a member of the Space Program Committee of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). He studied Business Administration in Coburg, Paris, and New York, earning B.Sc. degrees from Coburg University and INSEEC Paris. As a Fulbright Scholar, he completed an M.Sc. in Global Political Economy at Rutgers University in New Jersey in 2007. In 2022, he earned an Executive MBA from the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT). After returning to Germany from the US, he joined the Executive Management Program at Axel Springer before moving to the BDI in 2008 as Executive Assistant to the CEO. In 2010, he became Head of Strategic Planning, Policy and Coordination; since 2012, he has led the department for Security, Raw Materials and Africa.

Florian Hahn has been Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office since 6 May 2025. Grounded in the new government’s foreign policy principles of promoting Security, Freedom and Prosperity, his regional responsibilities encompass trans­atlantic relations; relations with Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine; and the Asia-Pacific, South Asia, and Near East Regions. In addition, his policy portfolio includes external trade and economic security as well as security policy issues, the promotion of a rules-based order, United Nations and Arms Control, and energy policy.

Dr. Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu is the first Romanian cosmonaut and a leading inter­national authority on space policy, plane­tary defense, and sustainable space explo­ration. Born on 27 September 1952 in Brașov, Romania, he completed an eight-day space mission in May 1981 aboard Soyuz-40 and the Salyut-6 orbital station –an achievement that placed Romania among the spacefaring nations and shaped his lifelong diplomatic, scientific, and strategic engagement in global space governance. A founding member of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu served as ASE International President (2011-2014) and ASE Europe President for six years, and has been a key member of the ASE Committee on Near-Earth Objects since 2005. Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu has held several top national and international positions: President of the Romanian Space Agency (1998-2004); Romania’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2004-2005); Chair of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) from 2010 to 2012; and co-vice-chair of the Working Group that delivered the UN “Space2030” Agenda in 2021. He has been appointed twice by the UN General Assembly to high-level Groups of Governmental Experts on space security (TCBMs and PAROS) and contributed to the EU Institute for Security Studies report on European space security. Within Europe, Dr. Prunariu served as Vice-Chair of the Inter­national Relations Committee of the European Space Agency (2014-2017). In recognition of his leadership in planetary defense and his key role in establishing the UN-recognized Asteroid Day, asteroid “10707 Prunariu” was named in his honor. He is the Vice-Chairman of the Asteroid Foundation Board in Luxembourg and a member of the Advisory Board of the Moon Village Association (MVA). In 2021, he was elected Chair of the Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activities (GEGSLA), coordinating 37 international experts in producing the landmark study on a global framework for peaceful and sustainable lunar operations. He also initiated and negotiated, on behalf of Romania, the creation of the “Action Team for Lunar Activities Consultations” (ATLAC), adopted by COPUOS in 2024. Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Board of Directors, an honorary member of the Romanian Academy and the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, and a recipient of multiple Doctor Honoris Causa titles across Romania, Moldova, and the United States. An aerospace engineer by training, Dr. Prunariu graduated from the Politehnica University of Bucharest in 1976 and holds a PhD in space flight dynamics. As co-author of several books and numerous scientific papers, he remains an active global advocate for space education and public outreach.