White House urges firms to skip France's space summit

France is hosting its first-ever International Space Summit this week in Paris. Nearly 120 countries are invited to talk about the future of space. Days before it starts, several major American space companies dropped out. SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, and Starcloud all canceled their planned attendance. Reuters reports the White House pressured them to stay away.

Nobody involved has explained exactly why, on the record. Some reporting points to one motive: protecting Starlink's dominance in satellite internet. The summit is expected to push European "strategic autonomy" in space. That means less reliance on American companies. It's also landing amid broader US-Europe friction.

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Does skipping the summit actually protect anything, or does it just hand Europe more reason to build around American companies? France is using this event to push its own space companies and allies toward less dependence on the US. A very public American boycott might speed that up rather than slow it down.