The President of the Spanish Government visits ESA’s Space Astronomy Centre
The President of the Spanish Government, Mr Mariano Rajoy, was welcomed to ESA’s Space Astronomy Centre on the 6th November by the Agency’s Director General, Jean-Jaques Dordain on a visit marking 50 years of European cooperation in space.
President Rajoy stressed Spain’s status as one of founders of this cooperation and ESA’s importance for Spain: “ESA is our window to space.”
In 1964, two unique organisations came into being: ESRO was dedicated to space research, while ELDO focused on launchers. A decade later, they merged to form ESA – and Spain was a founding member of both ESRO and ESA.
The country continues to be a strong supporter of the Agency, as the fifth-largest member state in terms of funding.
“ESA would not be the same without Spain,” noted Mr Dordain, not only because it contributes a substantial fraction of ESA’s budget, but “because Spain has been there since the beginning.”
The event at the European Space Astronomy Centre, ESAC, near Madrid, Spain, was attended by more than 200 representatives of Spain’s aerospace industry, the scientific community and national and local authorities.
Both Mr Rajoy and Mr Dordain highlighted the growth and competitiveness of Spain’s aerospace industry. This was highlighted by the signing of the prime contracts for the Proba-3 and Cheops missions, both to be launched in 2017.
Sener is now responsible for developing Proba-3, ESA’s first close formation-flying mission, while Cheops is being built by Airbus Defence and Space España to study exoplanets.
President Rajoy complimented ESA on its activities at ESAC, describing them as the Agency’s “scientific soul” and “the library of the Universe”.
ESAC’s central role is science operations and as a repository for the body of scientific data produced, as well as making it accessible to the world. Millions of observations from ESA’s astronomy and planetary missions are housed there, constantly providing data to thousands of scientists across the globe.
“Space has become essential for our real lives,” said Mr Dordain. “ESA is involved in all space activities, from scientific exploration to the delivery of services to citizens.
“ESA is celebrating 50 years that have placed Europe amongst the world leaders. We have positively contributed to Europe’s growth and competitiveness.”
Before the formal declarations, President Rajoy, Mr Dordain and the other delegates were shown ESAC’s operations rooms, archives and the space surveillance centre by ESAC’s Head of Establishment, Alvaro Giménez, and ESA astronaut Pedro Duque.