Madrid has been left out of the game in the race to get headquarters of the incipient Spanish Space Agency. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, confirmed this Thursday that this new scientific management infrastructure will not be centralized in the capital, which has brought the possibilities of establishing it 2,000 kilometers away, closer. in the Canary Islands.The Archipelago’s asset in its candidacy will be its geographical and meteorological benefits, as well as its long history of involvement with space activities; reasons that he will use to try to convince the Council of Ministers that his candidacy stands out among the proposals of other regions, among which are Seville and Teruel.
“The possibilities we have are real,” says the director of the Carlos Navarro, director of the Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI). José Luis García, president of the Canary Islands Aerospace and Aeronautics Cluster (CAAC), agrees with him, recalling that there are reports from the Proexa company that see the Canary Islands as an “ideal” place for domicile this scientific infrastructure that, according to Sánchez, will be established in the country “at the beginning of 2023”.
No formal application
This means that, at the latest, the Council of Ministers must choose the ideal place to establish this headquarters after the summer. The Canary Islands have not yet submitted their formal candidacy, although “everyone already knows that we are going to present ourselves”, as Carlos Navarro explains.
It has not been carried out because, although the candidacy is “quite advanced”, the Canarian Executive is “looking for the right moment” to present it, as well as having the largest number of “supports and adhesions”. And it is that, both Navarro and the rest of the regional government considers that the time to formally present the candidacy is not as important as having a “powerful” proposal.
The Canary Islands will use their best weapons to win this national space race. The good weather throughout the year, its geostrategic location, the talent that is trained each year in both universities, the fiscal conditions and the strong alliances with the international astrophysics and aerospace sector, will be the main assets to get points for the Archipelago . “Very powerful projects are already being carried out here, so the Agency would be the finishing touch for the effort that has been made for decades,” highlights Navarro, who affirms that it is “a unique opportunity.”
NASA Connection
The Islands are positioned as one of the strongest candidates in Spain and it is not surprising since it has been linked to space for more than 60 years. “NASA’s Gemini and Apollo missions were coordinated from the Canary Islands,” recalls García. It was at that time that the United States saw in the Islands a real opportunity to receive the first communications that would be made from space. In fact, it was on the Islands that the phrase “one small step for man; one giant leap for humanity” was heard for the first time, the words that astronaut Neil Armstrong blurted out during his first moonwalk.
Since then, the sector of astrophysics and the industry linked to space has grown at breakneck speed in the Islands, placing them as a strategic point of reference for the sector. The Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) – and its associated facilities -, the headquarters of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) in Gran Canaria or the Institute of Applied Microelectronics of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are examples of the intense and long relationship that the Islands have developed with the cosmos.
In fact, in recent years the Canary Islands have been a benchmark in the manufacture of parts for all types of satellites, it has launched several probes and has been a testing ground for different technologies from other space agencies, such as NASA or the European Space Agency (ESA). ).
Andalusia has highlighted its aeronautical strength and the potential of its astrophysical research
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The competitors that the Atlantic archipelago faces are not negligible. Andalusia has presented one of the favorite candidates, in which it has highlighted its aeronautical strength -backed by its relations with Airbus- and the potential of its astrophysical research. In fact, in his latest statements, Sánchez has highlighted the benefits of this location. For its part, Teruel has presented itself as another competitor with “tremendous conditions”, as highlighted by García, who explains that the promoter of the initiative in that region has been, precisely, a Canarian.
Despite this, the promoters of the future candidacy in the Canary Islands are confident that they will meet the appropriate requirements to keep up with their opponents. “Other communities will have interest and infrastructure that the Canary Islands do not have now, but that I would have no problem installing. However, they lack the conditions that the part of the world in which we find ourselves provides us,” says Hernández.