Macron calls for Europe to ramp up investment in space

By Tim Hepher and Giulia Segreti

PARIS, June 20 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron threw his weight behind plans for a European satellite manufacturing champion on Friday, declaring space the next frontier for competition between world powers.

Speaking at the Paris Airshow after France moved to take control of satellite operator Eutelsat ETL.PA, Macron called for a broader European drive from launchers to manufacturing and services as he set out a strategy to counter the sprawling rocket-to-telecoms interests of SpaceX owner Elon Musk.

The world's largest aerospace event, usually a showcase for billions of dollars of jetliner orders, has been dominated this year by geopolitical and trade tensions and the lingering effects of the pandemic on supply chains.

"At the intersection of all these public and private questions, as well as civil, military, scientific and industrial ones, space has in some way become a gauge of international power," Macron said.

Europe has struggled for years to keep up with the United States and China in space. Despite being the world's largest exporter of satellites, its two main manufacturers, Airbus AIR.PA and a tie-up between Thales TCFP.PA and Italy's Leonardo LDOF.MI, have struggled to make money and want to pool those activities.

"I want to say that they have our full support and confidence. I want us to build this new champion as soon as possible," Macron said.

"This is what will allow us, as Europeans, to have the scale to improve competitivity and volume. It's a sector consolidation."

Under pressure from Musk's cheaper low Earth-orbit satellites and a shift away from bespoke advanced satellites placed in higher orbit, Airbus, Thales and Leonardo have said they are discussing plans to forge a combined venture but that the talks are non-binding and not guaranteed to succeed.

Previous efforts to pool satellite-making have been thwarted by concerns from European competition authorities.

The commercial side of the show was heavily overshadowed by last week's crash of an Air India Boeing 787 jet in India, with Boeing sitting out any announcements as Airbus and Embraer rolled out some deals.