With retirement of Ariane 5 and Vega C still being grounded, European Space Agency (ESA) will continue to rely on SpaceX for payload launches in the near future. Ariane 6, successor to Ariane 5 is still in development and looks unlikely to be ready by 2024. This lead to European Space Agency`s announcement to move 2 payload mission to SpaceX`s Falcon 9.
The Euclid astronomy mission flew on Falcon 9 on July 1st and Hera asteroid mission will fly on Falcon 9 in October 2024. A lot more missions can see integration on the Falcon 9 payload instead of the Vega C, Soyuz and Ariane 6 said ESA director Josef Aschbache.
Cybersecurity implications include disclosing launch capabilities and other sensitive space data to other nations. While the European union remains an ally to the US, sharing our space data with them will increase their capabilities but also uncover to the rest of the world what they actually are. Other adversary nations can take note of this and better understand the points of failure of what otherwise would have been unknown.