Access to space is a pre-requisite for being able to provide space-based services and is a basic enabler for the entire space sector. Space launchers are viewed by world space powers as strategic assets and building-blocks for their space economy. Access to space is a sector of high visibility as well as a landmark of technological capabilities and soft power and as such, they have historically been developed by nations such as the USA, Russia, Europe, China, Japan and India with extensive government funding through R&D investments, infrastructure support, and the guarantee of services purchase. Starting in the 1960s, Europe has considered an independent access to space as a key capability, and invested significantly both nationally and through intergovernmental organisations, the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) and its successor the European Space Agency (ESA). Member States decided to carry on with the development of European launchers through ESA and since then Europe has been very successful with the Ariane family (1-5) and Vega launch vehicles. The 2013 Communication on EU space industrial policy set as one of the main objectives the necessity to ensure technological non-dependence and independent access to space. This Communication recalls that European institutional stakeholders have a twofold responsibility in ensuring the sustainability of this sector: political and economical and that the "European independent access to space must be preserved and strengthened in the long-term". The objectives of the study is to support the EU for the potential policy development in the field of the access to space by providing a comparative analysis of the international practices and related existing national space policies and legal frameworks of the following major space-faring nations: USA, Russia, China, Japan and India. The analysis should consider the development of national infrastructures, production and exploitation (e.g. organizational set-ups, costs, and governances), R&D activities (e.g. cost reductions, reliability, availability, non-dependence), how nations are supporting their local private sector and how the institutional demands participate in the support of their launch systems. In addition, an analysis of the present situation and how trends could impact the launch sector in the short, mid and long terms. Lessons learnt from international competition and recommendations applicable to the European case should be then derived. To meet these objectives, the present study is divided around 5 main chapters. The first part consists on an analysis of the space policy of major space-faring nations with a focus on their domestic access to space, the second is an analysis of the capabilities of launching nations (e.g. launch sites, launch systems), the third is an analysis of the global market of launches services, the fourth is an analysis of the industrial landscape of major launching nations including governance and cost structure and, the fifth is an assessment of the trends identified and how they might impact the launcher sector.
