As space rapidly becomes an essential battlefield, Europe risks being left behind. Its current approach to the new space race — regulate first, compete later — is unlikely to help. Ukraine’s dependence on SpaceX’s Starlink for military communications has exposed a strategic vulnerability that the European Union is now struggling to address. In its war with Russia, Ukraine has coordinated strikes and battlefield logistics through a single American company’s 8,000-plus satellite constellation — a scale and capability Europe can’t currently match. Although the EU has recognized this gap, its proposed response risks repeating mistakes it made with other cutting-edge technologies, leading to burdensome rules, high costs and few productive companies. Exhibit A is the EU’s proposed Space Act, which is explicitly framed as a bid to “shape norms and standards globally” for space safety, sustainability and so on. Its goal of harmonizing more than a dozen member-state space policies makes sense. It also identifies real concerns, including orbital congestion, space debris and cy