The European Union’s ambitions in space were in focus during a recent visit to the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) Prague headquarters by French State Secretary for European Affairs Amélie de Montchalin, who visited the Agency on Friday 29 November.
Madame de de Montchalin was in Prague to visit the GSA and, during her visit, she noted that: “European ambition in space is considerable, as we saw on 28 November in Seville, and the GSA is transforming this ambition into concrete projects that are improving the life of European citizens.”
The EU is a global leader in space and the space sector in Europe employs over 231,000 professionals, with an estimated value of €53-62 billion to the European economy in 2017. What’s more, Europe manufactures one third of all the world's satellites and, according to Eurospace, the space manufacturing industry posted sales worth €8.5 billion in 2018.
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French Space Agency (CNES) President and GSA Administrative Board Chair Jean-Yves Le Gall following his attendance at the European Space Agency ministerial meeting in Seville, Spain on November 27-28 welcomed Madame de Montchalin to the GSA headquarters. “We are very pleased to welcome Madame de Montchalin to the GSA, her visit bears testimony to the importance that France places on ensuring that space serves all Europeans,” he said.
Key contribution
At the meeting, GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides highlighted the central role of Europe’s GNSS programmes in the overall contribution of space to the European economy. “According to the latest edition of our GNSS Market Report, European companies account for an estimated 27% of the global GNSS downstream market, which is forecast to increase to EUR 325 billion in 2029,” he said.
“France has been a valued partner for the Galileo programme since the launch of the first operational satellite from the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guiana in 2011, and the critical Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) for our Galileo launches is controlled from the CNES Space Centre in Toulouse,” des Dorides said.
‘With the GSA taking on new its responsibilities in becoming EUSPA at the beginning of 2021 and with Galileo reaching full capability, it is important that all the Member States continue to support our activities, and so we are pleased to take the opportunity of the visit of Mrs Montchalin to explain the evolution of the Galileo services,” he said.
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