"I think the US in general doesn't pay much attention to European space." That's how Dr. Michael Gleason of the Aerospace Corporation opens - and it's exactly the blind spot this conversation sets out to expose. Recorded live on day two of the 41st Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Torsten Kriening sits down with the analyst whose latest paper, "Geopolitical Awakening: The European Union and Space," made a lot of Europeans uncomfortable - not because he got it wrong, but because an American got it right. It's Gleason's ninth paper on EU space activities across more than twenty years of watching the continent's slow, incremental, and now suddenly accelerating progress. The conversation digs into what mapping Europe's space ecosystem from the outside reveals that insiders often miss. Gleason walks through the political-will framework he first built in 2004 - policy, institutions, senior-leader attention, and money - and explains why, with up to €60 billion on the table in the next EU budget, he believes this time Europe means it. Then comes his one truly original insight: as EU funding flows into ESA, the share could climb past 50%, and that "different color of money" might quietly loosen the geographic-return rule that has held European space together for forty years. From strategic autonomy (and what Washington actually hears when Europeans say it - "not much") to dual-use tensions around Galileo, Copernicus and IRIS², from missile-warning data sharing to the role of NATO, this is a clear-eyed, transatlantic exchange. And it ends on a provocation worth sitting with: the most uncomfortable thing isn't Gleason's conclusions - it's that a European institution didn't write the paper. Strategic autonomy, as Torsten argues, starts with self-understanding. Torsten's Op'ed: #SpaceWatchGL Opinion: Who Understands European Space Better - Washington or Brussels? Space Café Radio brings you talks, interviews, and reports from the team of SpaceWatchers while out on the road. Each episode has a specific topic, unique content, and a personal touch. Enjoy the show, and let us know your thoughts at radio@spacewatch.global We love to hear from you. Send us your thought, comments, suggestions, love letters Support the show You can find us on: Spotify and Apple Podcast! Please visit us at SpaceWatch.Global, subscribe to our newsletters. Follow us on LinkedIn and X!
