Originally published here.

“If I weren’t optimistic about Europe, I wouldn’t have founded this company here. I would have just moved to the US.” - Hélène Huby, Founder and CEO of The Exploration Company

Hélène Huby is a rocket scientist, engineer, and Founder and CEO of The Exploration Company, which exists to make space exploration more affordable and sustainable. Hélène was previously a VP and Head of Innovation at Airbus, and Program Director at ArianeGroup.

In Europe, we’ve lacked ambition in space for quite a while. We haven’t had a structured European space strategy for more than 25 years. 10 years ago India was way behind us, and now they’re five years ahead because they have a very clear space strategy and focus.

Our cooperation with the US hasn’t been one of equal contribution. We’ve partnered in a junior role, building backup systems, but not the most complete or complicated pieces of technology. So every year we invest billions into reproducing the technology we already know and understand, without developing new ideas.

SpaceX arrived with a different industrial setup and approach, and all the big players in Europe haven’t been able to adapt. It’s like when the internet arrived and changed everything. It’s a completely different way of designing, developing, and funding technological innovation.

Absolutely. If I weren’t optimistic about Europe, I wouldn’t have founded this company here. I would have just moved to the US.

But I could see more and more countries wanting to send astronauts into space, and to build new space stations. And we can count on one hand the number of vehicles that can actually go into space and bring astronauts back safely. So why not build one here in Europe?

We have very good competencies here in Europe. The history of Airbus proves we can achieve things when we cooperate between countries. And there are hundreds of space startups in Europe. It’s a real space renaissance.

I would love to see a European capsule take Europeans into space. Every rocket that takes off is a miracle of technology. We can see with our own eyes what we can achieve when we work together with the same goal, and I’d like the whole world to see what Europe can achieve through our space program.

If you want to go fast, you have to take risks and shortcuts. Perhaps it’s going to fail, but you’re going to learn so much in the process. We foster this in the company by putting huge pressure on planning.

We built our first two capsules alone, very fast. But our clients aren’t used to such quick decision making yet, so we’re not completely there yet in Europe. There’s a big gap between what the top leaders say and the operational levels, but I believe we will all get there together as long as we share the same goal and strategy.

In space, the biggest risk is technical execution. A mistake can cost us months. We therefore use a software method – start small, learn fast, and iterate. First, it was a baby capsule: 9 months, $2 million. And we did it. Then we did a teenage capsule: 2 years, $20 million. So now we have a lot of trust in our ability to do the full thing and stick to our cost budgets.

We went to the German and French agencies within the first three months, asking them to buy a little piece of our mission. The alternative is they continue to give crazy money to SpaceX, rather than invest in a European alternative. They’re taking a risk, but if we succeed it’s a huge win. As long as we respect each other and value relationships, and have the same goals, it will happen.