12th European Space Conference held in Brussels

This week will see the 12th European Space Conference take place in Brussels, with the major players in industry and governments sharing a stage to address and debate the European Space Industry.

Contrast and compare with last year when UK Space Agency Chief Executive, Graham Turnock performed the closing address, there appears to be absolutely no representation from the UK government or UK Space Agency. Although there is one discussion panel on which Orbex CEO, Chris Larmour is taking part.

The absence of any official UK representation is a telling tale indeed. With the UK’s pending exit from the European Union, it appears the country is going all out to exclude itself from anything even remotely European. And yet, the European Space Agency is not directly connected to the EU, so it really is odd for the UK to opt-out of this event.

Hopefully, this isn’t a sign of the UK’s isolationist ambitions and that the country will still contribute to the overall Space Industry across Europe. Although it is becoming increasingly clear that the UK does have some ambitions to be self-sufficient and the creation of its own space industry is a sign of that. The problem is that it will need to remain closely linked to the rest of Europe’s space activities in order to make that feasible. Commercial enterprises in the sector will want access to launch facilities and potential customers across all of Europe.

The Space Conference will run over a two-day period and will cover Growth, Climate, Security and Defence with an extensive programme of debates and roundtable discussions across the four key topics.

More details on the European Space Conference: https://www.spaceconference.eu/