National Microsatellite Programme will contribute to many areas

The contract for AXIS 3 of the National Microsatellite Programme will be signed on November 14, Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou said in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) on Wednesday, on the occasion of World Space Week, which this year focuses on "Space and Climate Change."

Papastergiou underlined the critical role of the programme in monitoring and dealing with climate change. "The 15 microsatellites will provide useful data every day, several times a day," he said and added: "The programme will also contribute to other areas, such as meteorology, agricultural crops, but also the economy, as the companies that have undertaken the construction of the microsatellites will transfer all this knowledge to Greece."

He stated that 2024 is a year when Greece can celebrate World Space Week, "because now the programme is targeted at the environment and protection and is also rather mature. The tenders have proceeded, most of the contracts have been signed, there is one last contract that will be signed in the next few days for the ground stations. Now we can talk about a national strategy for Space."

Asked about the creation of the space hub, he said: "It is very important to stress that these tenders are not happening in the future. Three tenders for the satellite system have been completed, they have been signed and by the middle of next month, on November 14, we will sign the last contract - to which many Greek companies are coming - and which concerns the base station and the creation of this hub."

Moreover, he said that "this programme is a huge opportunity for the economy, for investments in Greece, because we have resources from the Recovery Fund totaling 200 million euros. However, it is important that this money generates a leveraging of funds so that we can sustain this initiative."

"The ecosystem will now be able to pay for itself as it will produce a result, produce a product. Even in the first three tenders related to the construction of microsatellites, Greek engineers come back to work in Greece. We should say that they are coming back to their homeland because the obligation of the companies that undertook the construction of the satellites was to open offices in our country, laboratories and to manufacture all this technology in Greece, in order for it to remain here as knowledge, as capability so that we can continue later on our own."