ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer speaks on the panel Space Exploration: A Driver of European Industrial Competitiveness on the second day of the 18th European Space Conference in Brussels, Belgium on 28 January 2026, flanked by Didier Schmitt, ESA's Head of Future Preparation in the Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration, and Christian Feichtinger, Executive Director of the International Astronautical Federation.