Moncloa wants the Three Wise Men to bring the Agency and has already arranged for a Commissioner to take the first steps towards it

The countdown to the creation of the Spanish Space Agency begins

photo_camera PHOTO/Airbus DS - The Agency is extremely important for strengthening the national space industry, which wants it to get off to a good start and to start soon

The recently closed Space Legal Congress has been an attempt to bring light, visibility and transparency to the process of creating the Spanish Space Agency, the new national organisation that has been shrouded in a fog from the very moment that almost a year ago - and by surprise - the announcement was made by the soon-to-be dismissed director of the Prime Minister's Cabinet, Iván Redondo.

An initiative that has continued to keep a very low profile until its necessity was suddenly included in the National Security Strategy of late 2021. And it continues to be shrouded in a thick veil even since its existence is contemplated in the draft of the new Science Law approved by the Council of Ministers on 18 February.

The aforementioned law has been in Congress since the end of February, awaiting whether or not the busy members of parliament introduce any other modifications and deign to give it the green light. Most likely this will happen in the next few weeks, before they start their long summer holidays.

Que dentro de 8 meses la Agencia sea una realidad dista mucho de ser fácil. Son muchos los intereses que hay que conciliar. Hablando en el Congreso Jurídico Miguel Ángel García Primo, máximo responsable del operador Hisdesat

If the forecast does not come true, it will be difficult for the Palacio de la Moncloa to see the Space Agency "see the light of day, if possible, on 1 January 2023", a fact made public by the head of the Systems and Infrastructure Unit of the National Security Department of the Presidency of the Government, Air Force Colonel Juan Antonio de la Torre.

Colonel de la Torre made this announcement as a speaker at the 2nd Spanish Space Law Congress, which at the end of April brought together some 40 executives from the national industry and leading jurists specialising in aerospace law at the Faculty of Law of the Complutense University of Madrid. Among the latter, Professor Fernando González Botija and lawyers Jaime Rodríguez, Carlos Albareda, Enrique Navarro, Rafael Harillo and Efrén Díaz, who stated that almost everything is yet to be regulated in the regulatory framework.

La nueva Ley de la Ciencia de la ministra Diana Morant fue remitida al Congreso a finales de febrero y todavía está a la espera de ser aprobada, lo que sucederá previsiblemente en las próximas semanas
Only 8 months from the first of January

But making the Spanish Space Agency a reality at the beginning of next year - eight months from now - is an arduous task and far from easy. Because there are many interests and issues to reconcile, and it is not only the departments of Defence, Industry and Science that have responsibilities in the field of space.

For example, the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and the Urban Agenda is in charge of "coordinating Spain's position in the field of satellite navigation" at the national level and in Brussels. To carry out this task, the Ministry headed by minister Raquel Sánchez has "more than 200 civil servants dedicated to space issues", confirmed Juan Manuel Codosero, a senior official in the department and vice-president of the Board of Directors of the European Union Space Programme Agency, EUSPA.

However, it is Diana Morant's Ministry of Science and Innovation that represents Spain at the European Space Agency (ESA). General Miguel Ángel Ballesteros, director of the Department of National Security, knows this and much more. So, in order to speed up the constitution of the new Agency, the Moncloa Palace has already given the go-ahead for a person to be responsible for promoting the constitution of the still unborn organisation in its preliminary stage. 

En el Congreso se han abordado los cambios del ecosistema espacial mundial y se ha alentado a los poderes públicos a dotarse de un cuerpo normativo que regule las actividades ultraterrestres en el territorio nacional

The name of the person to be appointed is being kept under lock and key. Until when? Until the president of the PSOE-Unidas Podemos coalition government finds the moment that best suits his interests and decides to make it public. With experience in national and international management, the selected executive will take the baton to lead the Working Group which, made up of representatives from practically all ministerial portfolios, must draft, specify and propose the structure and statutes of the Agency and its initial plan of action.

As the Agency is going to be under the bicephaly of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the head of the military portfolio -Margarita Robles, in delicate hours due to the Pegasus case- and that of Science, Diana Morant, both have agreed on who will be the first visible face of the new institution: a person with experience and prestige in the sector, who is or has been professionally linked to institutions or entities closely related to one or the other department.

Bajo la bicefalia de los Ministerios de Defensa y Ciencia e Innovación, Margarita Robles (en imagen) y Diana Morant han acordado quien va a ser el primer rostro visible de la nueva institución
To be part of the new global space ecosystem

With many space agency models as a reference, the Commissioner and the Working Group - which has yet to hold its constitutive meeting - have to define the basic organisation chart of the Agency, as well as to know the needs of each department, the space capacities that meet them, identify those that already exist and those that it wishes to achieve. In short, "drafting a strategy and a plan with milestones, resources, deadlines and how to verify compliance", summarises Ángel Moratilla, Deputy Director General for Space Systems at the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA).

The difficulty in Spain lies in the fact that the foundation of a national space agency has been delayed for decades, so the ministries that assume responsibility in this area have qualified staff and have qualified personnel and knowledge that they defend tooth and nail. This is the main reason for the delays that the still embryonic Agency is suffering. 

El Ministerio de Transporte, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana es el responsable de coordinar la posición española en la esfera de la navegación en la Agencia para el Programa Espacial de la Unión Europea, EUSPA

Its establishment is a "demand from industry, it has our full support and we are pleased that the process is underway", stresses Jorge Potti, vice-president of the Spanish Association of Defence, Security, Aeronautics and Space Technology Companies (TEDAE) and head of the Space Commission of the aforementioned organisation. 

Potti stresses that it is "extremely important" that boosting the Spanish space industry "forms part of the soul" of the new organisation. "We hope that it starts well and that it starts soon", while offering TEDAE's total willingness to participate "in any meeting or working group in which they want to count on us". 

El recién clausurado Congreso Jurídico Espacial ha sido un intento por aportar visibilidad y transparencia a la creación de la Agencia, que ha estado y está envuelta por una niebla desde el momento mismo de su anuncio

The 2nd Space Law Congress was organised by the Spanish Association of Aeronautics and Space Law (AEDAE), chaired by Professor Elisa Gonzalez Ferreiro. The multidisciplinary forum reviewed the profound changes in which the global space ecosystem is immersed and made suggestions on the importance of Spain having a Space Law and a regulatory body to regulate ultra-terrestrial activities in the national territory.

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