A new European Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA) will succeed and expand the current European GNSS Agency (GSA), which has been managing the EU’s Galileo satellite system for 15 years. The new agency staff will benefit from an increased staff of 700 people, up from 100, and continue to be based in Prague, Czech Republic.
In addition to the development of Galileo operations, the EUSPA will manage use of the Copernicus Earth observation satellite system, prepare the Governmental Satellite Communications (Govsatcom) program, and concentrate EU capacities to monitor the Earth’s near surroundings.
In 2019, the EU proposed to increase its space program budget by 30 percent to €16 billion over the next seven-year budget period.
[Photo above: GSA headquarters in Prague. courtesy GSA].
GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides commented in a panel discussion in November that “According to our recent GNSS Market Report, the global downstream market revenue from both GNSS devices and services will grow from €150 billion in 2019 to €325 billion in 2029. These figures show us that space already plays a major role in the EU economy, creating opportunities for business and jobs for European citizens.”
The renamed and expanded new agency “will increasingly support the exploitation and market uptake of EU space activities and play an increased role in ensuring the security of all programme components. The intergovernmental European Space Agency (ESA), given its expertise, will remain a major partner in the technical implementation of the EU space programme,” des Dorides added.
