Portugal marks 20 years in ESA
A conversation with Ricardo Conde, interim President at Portugal’s space agency, PT Space.
On 14 November 2000 Portugal became the 15th Member State of the European Space Agency.
In the past 20 years Portugal has been able to improve its participation in ESA activities allowing the growth of its national space industry. More recently, under the impulsion of the current Minister of Higher Education and Science, Manuel Heitor, Portugal increased its contribution to ESA programmes at Space 19+. A number of initiatives have been launched during the last five years that led to the creation, among others, of the AIR Centre and of an ESA_Lab@Azores. A bold and visionary Portuguese space strategy was released in 2018 and led to the creation of a space agency for Portugal in 2019. To crown this ambition, Portugal currently holds the co-Presidency of ESA Council at Ministerial level.
We spoke to Ricardo Conde, interim President of the Portugal Space agency, about the importance of space and the outlook for space activities in Portugal.
What does it mean for Portugal to be an ESA Member State?
To be a member of ESA means to unlock the technological and scientific potential of the Portuguese industry and scientific institutions. It means to be part of something bigger than ourselves and, through space, be part of the European construction and to contribute to have a better and inclusive Europe. ESA is also an instrument of diplomacy in Europe and in the world.
What's the situation now and what are the main achievements after 20 years of membership
Today Portugal is better and strong in space because 20 years ago, Portugal became a Member State of ESA.
At that time it was really a strategic decision taken by our science minister Mariano Gago. He understood the importance of being part of an organisation like ESA to develop the national competences and raise to another level our ambition to be able to create consistently, a growing process of innovation, science and technology in Portugal. I don’t know if at that time we had so many people with that long-term vision.
We started, I remember very well, with the task force for Portugal. Step by step several projects were launched mainly in technology transfer. The national delegations through the years increased the national budget to ESA giving a sign to the companies and scientific institutions that the space area could be an opportunity to develop their capacities and expand their markets. After 20 years of capacity building, the Portuguese space ecosystem is now prepared to the next step, working, at a national and international level, at the programmatic level. This was the message given during the last ESA ministerial in Sevilla, when Portugal reoriented the Space Policy for Portugal in ESA, subscribing to the main programmatic line. We are more mature, more prepared and with a national strategy for space!
What are the current plans and where would you like to see Portugal within ESA in the next 10 years
Understanding the moment that Europe and the world involved in space was experiencing, Portugal wanted to become a new actor in space with a different approach. A national strategy for space, Portugal Space 2030, was created, which sees Portugal developing space capabilities to work towards becoming a globally recognised authority in space-climate-ocean interactions, with a focus on the Atlantic and its socio-economic exploitation. It was soon followed by the creation of the Portuguese space agency (2019) in close cooperation with ESA, as an instrument to implement that strategy. Today, Portugal through the Portuguese space agency, launched an ambitious programmatic agenda with a focus on a low-orbit satellite constellation for the Atlantic, a multisource Earth observation data platform to foster the development of downstream applications (Digital Planet), the development of the Santa Maria Space Ecosystem (with a spaceport for small rockets and Comms space gateways), and in another dimension of the IOT/5G by satellite to cover the remote regions overseas and inland. This is a challenge for a decade.
To implement these challenges we are articulating several national and structural funds and the overall target is to multiply the space sector by at least 10 times in a decade (by the end of 2030). This is exactly where we see Portugal in ESA for the upcoming years, articulating ESA funds with structural funds and private funds to participate, and to have a stronger space ecosystem in Portugal. Certainly this requires a European space policies articulation and for that we need also a strong ESA.
I want to see in the next 10 years, more Portuguese companies in a cooperative European environment, leading subsystems in several European space missions. I also want to see in the near future an LSI in Portugal. We are working on that!
A word about PT Space... a long-awaited reality as you said in your speech 18 months ago
It was an old ambition but a journey was needed and we did that journey with ESA during these 20 years. And this ambition was interpreted by the Government as a need and also an answer to develop the country. We are prepared to go to another level!
The model that Portugal adopted when the Portuguese Space Agency was created was important: first, to create a national space agency as an ESA Hub. Second, to have someone in the leadership that knows ESA and the international space environment enabling the agency to project Portugal and the Portuguese ambitions at the international level. This was achieved by the first president of the agency, Chiara Manfletti, who brought to Portugal this recognition. She did a great job. She has Portugal's gratitude for that!
Today, there are big expectations at the Portuguese space agency based in the main programmatic challenges launched, and also to contribute, with these programmatic challenges, to building an industrial agenda for space in Portugal and to make Portugal a ‘space nation’.
