The space sector is an unprecedented commitment by the Government of Spain in a strategic area that generates opportunities and quality employment. The Council of Ministers approved the statute of the Spanish Space Agency on March 7, an initiative that reinforces the space activity that our country has been carrying out for many years.
Spain has been one of the first countries to have deployed activity in this sector and has some scientific-technological centers and a space industry that is a reference in Europe. The beginning of space activity dates back to 1960, when the agreement was signed with the United States for the monitoring stations of its deep space network (DSN or Deep Space Network), in which Spain has played a key role during the years. last sixty years for the success of the Moon (Apollo program) and interplanetary projects. Spain joined the first European space organization ESRO (European Space Research Organization) in 1964 and began launching the first sounding rockets in 1966 from the El Arenosillo base in Huelva. The first Spanish satellite (Intasat) was launched in 1974, making Spain one of the first countries in the world with this space capacity. In 1975, Spain became the founding country of the European Space Agency (ESA), long before it became part of the European Union. Finally, in 1978, the Villafranca del Castillo monitoring station was established, today known as ESAC (European Space Astronomy Center), one of the large reference centers of the ESA in Europe and from where the main European scientific missions are managed and operated.
From this initial stage where Spain has been a pioneer in space activity, we have today reached a vibrant sector. The Spanish space industry has an annual volume of close to 1,000 million euros, being the fourth space power in the European Union (after France, Germany and Italy), employs 5,000 people and exports 80% of its turnover according to TEDAE figures. (Spanish Association of Defense, Security, Aeronautics and Space Technology Companies), the business organization of the sector. This industry has characteristics that make it very attractive, such as a reinvestment of 21% of turnover in research and development activities and a productivity that is 2.5 times higher than the average for the Spanish industry.
Added to these characteristics is the fact that Spain has companies in all areas of the sector’s value chain, in the space segment (satellites with their platform and payloads), in the ground segment (monitoring centers, control and data processing), in the launcher segment, in operations and in the value-added product development market segment (downstream in English terminology). Another fundamental characteristic of the Spanish space sector is that there is representation of the entire space taxonomy, including operators such as Hispasat and Hisdesat; big primes of the space industry in Europe such as Airbus and Thales; a series of mid-cap companies with recognized prestige such as GMV, SENER, Indra, GTD, DEIMOS, Alter, Telespazio or DAS Photonic; companies that have appeared more recently in the line of what is known as new space that offer highly innovative solutions such as Solar MEMs, DHV, AVS, Alen Space, Arquimea or Satlantis with great success, and finally a series of companies that are developing small launchers such as PLD, Pangea or B2Space.
This thriving industrial sector is joined by scientific-technological centers and universities, on the one hand the INTA (National Institute of Aerospace Technology) belonging to the Ministry of Defense, territorial centers such as Tecnalia and astrophysical institutes such as those in Cantabria, Andalusia or Canary Islands that are a world reference in space sciences.
With this scientific and industrial space fabric and the determined action of the Government, which has placed the space sector as a national priority, important opportunities now appear in Spain in the sector. Firstly, the creation of the Spanish Space Agency, requested by the main agents in the sector for years and which has now become a reality. The management of space activity was carried out in Spain by different ministries; Up to eleven ministries have come to have powers in this area.
The appearance of the agency involves the grouping of all these competencies to better define a coordinated space strategy and its implementation in a National Space Plan, as well as offering representation and a single international voice in the different space forums and for the signing of bilateral and multilateral agreements with other countries in the space field. The agency will also be responsible for proposing a Space Law, something that almost all the countries around us already have and that will help regulate this sector where more and more emerging actors appear. The agency will help optimize synergies between the different civil, dual and security and defense space programs. The agency also aims to encourage private investment in the space sector and encourage the use of space applications in both the public and private sectors.
Another important opportunity for the sector is the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) Aerospace, led by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. The creation of the Spanish Space Agency is one of the main lines of action of this strategic project. The approval of this PERTE by the Council of Ministers meant the definition of this sector as strategic, a project that involves a public-private investment initially estimated at 4,533 million euros and will probably exceed 5,000 million euros with the new lines of action that they continue to be defined. The objective of PERTE is the recovery of the industry after the pandemic and improve its positioning in the face of the great challenges of this sector.
The aerospace PERTE was initially defined around 18 lines of action in the aeronautical field (towards zero-emission aircraft and promotion of the use of unmanned aircraft), space (creation of the space agency and technological space program) and transversal (financing , human Resources). Some of PERTE’s most emblematic projects in the space area are the development of a small satellite launcher; the deployment of the 16 satellites of the Atlantic constellation, together with Portugal, to mitigate the effects of climate change and natural disasters; the payload for distribution of quantum security keys in space from a geostationary satellite and the development of Earth observation applications for security. Today there are already 23 lines of action defined, which make this PERTE a living project that continues to create new opportunities.
Spain’s contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA) is also part of the Aerospace PERTE. Along these lines, a significant effort has been made to increase our quota to 300 million euros annually (a 50% increase in the last three years), which has created important new opportunities at the Paris Ministerial Conference in November 2022. , where Spain begins, for the first time, to lead scientific space projects such as Arrakihs, navigation such as LEO PNT or space security such as DRACO. It should also be noted that in the astronaut selection process completed in Paris, two Spanish astronauts (Pablo Álvarez and Sara García) were designated for the first time in thirty years.
Another interesting opportunity for the sector in Spain is that great interest has been awakened in this strategic activity in many territories. The Generalitat of Catalonia has an ambitious project to promote space activity, not only launching satellites but also the use of space applications in the Administration and in the private sector. In the same way, Euskadi and Galicia have also supported the launch of satellites (Urdaneta and Xatcobeo), and other territories such as Andalusia are also interested in the launch of satellites developed in the region.
Lastly, a new opportunity opens up for the space sector in Spain and Europe after the crisis generated by the war in Ukraine, which shows that space is a? ? new domain of security and defense. In the US, space activity in the defense and security sector has been larger than NASA’s activity for many years now, but in Europe this has not been the case; Defense space activity was a very small part compared to civil space activity. This is going to change in the coming years; Just a few days ago the European Union published the space strategy for security and defense and it will be during Spain’s presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of this year where discussions will begin on how this strategy becomes in specific programs that will represent a great opportunity for our industry. In the Spanish area this opportunity is even more relevant; The new name of the Air and Space Army and the creation of the new space command is accompanied by an ambitious investment plan in defense space programs in the area of ??telecommunications and Earth observation that is part of the commitment made to reach 2% of GDP in security and defense. These investments can reach 4 billion euros in the next twenty years, another great opportunity for the space sector.
But this plethora of opportunities is accompanied by important challenges for the sector. The first is to adapt to the profound transformations it is undergoing. The emergence of the so-called new space and private investment by funds and billionaires has made commercial space, irrelevant just a few years ago, now the main actor, above the institutional space sector. The large space projects are now private megaconstellations of low orbit satellites to provide commercial telecommunications services. We are talking about systems with thousands of satellites such as SpaceX’s Starlink (it has already deployed more than 3,000 of the 7,500 target satellites) or Amazon’s Kuiper with 3,226 satellites. This will mean a revolution in the industrial production of satellites, going from building just one satellite every two or three years, to having to make several satellites a week. Production that was artisanal until recently has to become a process chain more similar to that of the automobile, where supply chains are going to play an essential role. The Spanish industry has to adapt to this challenge and adjust its design and production standards and its supply chains to this new type of project. There is already a megaconstellation project in Spain to provide air traffic services, the project called Startical, developed by Indra and Enaire and which may be an opportunity for the Spanish sector to face this challenge.
Another important challenge for the Spanish space sector is financing for commercial space projects, which has to be accompanied by private investment. One of the objectives of the Spanish Space Agency will be to encourage private investment, providing relevant technical information on the different projects, helping potential investors and startups.
Another important challenge for the Spanish, European and global space sector is to guarantee the sustainability of space exploitation. A database of 30,000 objects in space is being managed (operational satellites, inactive satellites, launcher remains, explosion fragments, space debris, etc.) that pose a great risk of collision for all operational satellites, which undergo frequent maneuvers. of evasion to avoid these crashes that occur at speeds of 30,000 km/h. Each collision in space generates more than 2,000 new fragments. This is now aggravated by the proliferation of new megaconstellations with thousands of new satellites that are turning the future sustainability of space exploitation into a serious problem. We depend on space for meteorology, preventing natural disasters, navigation, telecommunications, and many other applications that today are vital for the well-being of citizens. If we do not remedy this serious risk in a few years, we will not be able to offer these basic services, because we will not be able to orbit the Earth given the congestion of fragments. During the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of the year, this will be one of the priority issues that Spain wants to address.
Finally, an important challenge for the Spanish space sector is human resources. In order to take advantage of all the opportunities generated by PERTE Aeroespacial, the Spanish Space Agency, ESA and the new security and defense systems, we need the talent of our professionals and to be able to generate in universities and vocational training centers the profiles that the sector needs. We have excellent training centers from which new talents emerge every year, but the demand in the sector is greater. An important challenge for our sector is the training and retention of all this talent, which we have already begun to recruit.
The industry and the Spanish scientific and technological centers in the space sector have always known how to face the challenges posed during the sixty years of existence, which have been many and complex. Therefore, we are very optimistic about the future, especially with the large number of opportunities we are currently generating.
Miquel Belló is commissioner for the Strategic Project for Aerospace Recovery and Economic Transformation (PERTE).
