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Brussels – Slovakia, which is represented at the 17th European Space Conference in Brussels (January 28-29), like other partners from EU countries, is ready to benefit from the development of space technologies. This was stated by Michal Brichta, director of the industrial section of the Slovak Space Office within the SARIO agency, at the Slovak Space in Brussels 2.0 event, which took place on the eve of the conference at the Slovak Permanent Representation to the EU, reports TASR correspondent.
The European Commission (EC) is also represented at the European Space Conference. This year, the event is attended by EC Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen, EU Chief Diplomat Kaja Kallas, and European Commissioners Andrius Kubilius, Kostas Kadis, and Ekaterina Zaharieva.
Brichta recalled that, as five years ago, the aim of the event, which the Slovak Space Office prepared with the Slovak Permanent Representation to the EU, the Slovak Embassy in Belgium, SLORD, and the Trnava Self-Governing Region Representation to the EU, is to bring the Slovak space sector closer to Europeans and show how it has progressed over the last five years.
“We wanted to show the success that Slovak companies and Slovak researchers have achieved recently. Over five years, we have seen significant growth in the number of companies, from 20 to 50, which today in Slovakia are engaged in various areas of the space economy,” explained Brichta.
According to him, this concerns the development and production of satellite hardware and components for satellite units, or the area of remote Earth observation and the use of satellite data and signals for various technical applications in areas such as critical infrastructure, agriculture, or smart cities and smart transportation. He emphasized that space technologies today modernize people’s lives, maritime, aviation and road transport, meteorology, banking operations, and international trade.
Brichta also pointed out the growing importance of activities in the field of space safety, which help protect space technologies from space debris or solar activity.
“The goal was to show our foreign partners, especially large companies that are leaders in the space industry, what Slovakia can offer in this area,” said Brichta.
The European Commission has been indicating for several years that in the near future, EU profits from the space economy will be counted in billions of euros. Brichta confirmed that the goal of the Slovak “space ecosystem” is to participate in the profitability that space development generates, so that Slovakia is not just an increasing user of space technologies, as basically every country is today. Because space technologies are becoming increasingly integrated into our everyday lives.
“We want to be on the providing side, the one who can offer solutions. Therefore, we cooperate with Slovak companies, helping them to enter this world, identify what they can contribute to this domain, and which of their competencies they can transform into real activities in the space economy. These are companies from the software, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering fields,” he described the situation. According to him, the Slovak Space Office helps Slovak companies enter “hard-to-penetrate” value and supply chains and establish the necessary international cooperation in this field. (January 29)