By Chris Forrester
Dr. Marco Villa (Founding Partner, Ceresio Consulting) moderated this key panel at the SmallSat Europe event on May 27 at Amsterdam’s RAI Convention Center. He posed the question: Does Europe need independence in space?
Ian Carnelli (Head of the Systems Dept., European Space Agency) said the answer was a very loud ‘Yes’, but the systems and management of bringing [space] Agencies together, and the answer to this was ‘federation’ and in practical terms a ‘plug and play’ solution was needed across the European sector.
Sergio Encabo (BeNELux & North Europe Director, Intergrasys) said his company was already working hard and as a child of the 1980s when the Transformers were independently powerful but when they came together they were even more powerful! But the time for paperwork was over, and now progress must be made.
Fabio Angellotti (Space Segment Leader, European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA)) said his answer was also ‘Yes’ but more investment was needed into Europe’s SME business, and the war in Ukraine was a demonstration of this need. He said that Europe was capable of innovation but solid supply chains were needed but this did not mean one, solitary, supplier. SMEs needed support.
Joost Elstak (VP/Missions, ICEYE) also agreed with a ‘Yes’ response, but everyone was now so dependent on space-based technology that it was inevitability clear that Europe needed independence, and IRIS2 was needed and to echo the Galileo and Copernicus systems, both of which were now recognised as being industry leading. He said that his own company’s staff and teams had tripled over the past few years, and the concept of federation was very much on ICEYE’s agenda but he wanted to see a paradigm shift so that SMEs had greater access to Europe’s projects.
Mr Carnelli told delegates that as far as ESA was concerned that change was already happening, in procurement, at product levels, and that the will was in place for further change for even closer cooperation to coordinate and work hand-in-hand and a willingness to do so. It required an overall rethink for us at ESA and the other Agencies and the discussions we have had shows that we are ready. “We must provide the vision, the strategy and help for every aspect of even simple parts of our needs. We have also decided to stop contracts if there are delays or failures.”
