29/01/2025
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The second day of the European Space Conference saw European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano join ESA Directors and the Director General on a range of panels and interactions with media.
The European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius reminded the almost 2 000 participants of the key role of space in Europe: “We need a strong European presence in space, to defend Europe. Over the years we have built a unique European presence in space that serves all humanity,” he said.
The European Space Agency Director of Science, Carole Mundell, ESA Director of Space Transportation, Toni Tolker-Nielsen, and Arianespace Chief Commercial Officer, Steven Rutgers, have signed a launch agreement to fly ESA’s scientific mission Plato. Plato, PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, is ESA’s groundbreaking mission to discover potentially habitable planets around stars very similar to our Sun, and study thousands of exoplanets in detail, focusing on terrestrial ones.
Plato will board the Ariane 62 – the version of Ariane 6 with two boosters – for a launch from Europe’s Spaceport, in French Guiana, end of 2026, and will be placed into orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. It will be the first science mission to fly on Ariane 6, following a string of successful Science missions on Ariane launchers.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher was among the signatories of a new contribution agreement with the European Commission’s DG-INTPA for the African-EU Space Partnership Programme (Africa SPP). It is the third such Contribution Agreement with DG-INTPA evolving to a strategic partnership active on three continents to use Earth observation for sustainable development.
Marjeta Jager, DG INTPA Deputy Director General responsible for Directorates D, E, F , led the event where the agreement was also signed by Tidiane Ouattara, President of the African Space Council, and the Directors General of ESA, Eumetsat, and the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts.
DG INTPA is responsible for formulating the EU’s international partnership and development policy, aiming to reduce poverty, ensure sustainable development, and promote democracy, human rights, and the rule of law across the world.
On the fringes of the conference, Roberto Viola, Director-General of the European Commission’s DG CNECT, and Laurent Jaffart, ESA Director for Connectivity and Secure Communications signed an agreement on ESA’s technical support in the implementation of the EuroQCI initiative.
EuroQCI is a project to create a quantum communication network across the EU, using fibre and satellite links. By 2026, EuroQCI (European Quantum Communication Infrastructure) will begin working together with IRIS², Europe’s new secure satellite constellation.
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency used the framework of the conference to advance commercialisation activities in a series of interactions.
