LA PLATA, Maryland — The 22-nation European Space Agency (ESA) will loosen its geographic-return requirements by allowing industrial primes to build their best teams without regard for which ESA nation they’re from, with the idea that the subcontractor lineup could be reworked if needed later on.
The new policy, called fair return, is scheduled to be tried out as part of ESA’s European Launcher Challenge and has already been viewed skeptically by some industry officials, who doubt whether ESA governments will accept a de facto subsidization . . .
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