Europe’s Space Fantasy League

Brussels is at it again, this time launching satellites with the same strategic foresight it used for banning plastic straws and regulating the diameter of banana curves. Welcome to IRIS²: the EU’s flagship exercise in how to spend millions proving you might one day do something, then chasing off every competent partner who might help.

ESA to the Rescue

Thankfully, ESA, that rare bastion of engineering sanity, has walked in like the last sober adult at a glitter-drenched rave. They’re setting up shop in ESTEC, roping in actual experts to fix what amounts to four years of bureaucratic scribbling on the back of a napkin.