By Joey Roulette and Tim Hepher
WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) – The Trump administration pressured U.S. space companies not to attend a high-profile space summit in Paris organized by French President Emmanuel Macron, triggering a last-minute reshuffle and the cancellation of some announcements, according to people familiar with the matter on Thursday.
The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy hosted a call a week ago with several U.S. space companies planning to attend the September 9 to 10 event and said their attendance could suggest support for European policy positions with which the U.S. disagrees, four of the sources said.
The summit will feature speeches from Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as European countries ramp up investments in civil and military space capabilities and reduce reliance on U.S. firms like Elon Musk’s SpaceX for satellite communications and rocket launches.
The White House officials on the call, which was first reported by Politico, steered clear of explicitly directing companies not to attend but made strong suggestions against attending, the sources said.
Some announcements planned for release at the summit between European and U.S. companies have since been canceled, according to one of the sources. SpaceX will no longer attend, one of the sources said.
An OSTP official said, “The Trump Administration continues to collaborate with allies and partners in space. We look forward to productive conversations at the Space Summit on key priorities including science missions, exploration programs, and space security.”
France has said that the “International Space Summit” will open a dialogue between participants including heads of state and other decision makers and industrial or scientific groups from some 120 countries. The aim is to discuss various declarations of intent, but the informal political summit is not designed to take policy or budget decisions, European space officials said.
Macron’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chief organizer Philippe Adam, the former head of French space command, said in remarks published on Thursday that leading economic players from the U.S. and China had been invited and widespread participation was important.
“We are familiar with the perspectives of our allies and usual partners but less so our competitors,” he told French magazine Air&Cosmos.
(Reporting by Joey Roulette, additional reporting by Karen Freifeld, Michel Rose, and Tim Hepher; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Mark Porter)
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