The Azores’ “strategic importance” in the space sector has been further strengthened through a cooperation protocol signed this week between the Regional Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities, Paulo Estêvão, and the Portuguese Space Agency, according to a statement from the Regional Government.

“There is a set of strategic advantages that are reinforced with the creation of a space ecosystem in the Azores—an ecosystem that builds upon an importance we already held, from a maritime perspective, and now extends it into a new sector as decisive as space,” Paulo Estêvão said at the signing ceremony held at the Palácio da Conceição in Ponta Delgada. The Portuguese Space Agency was represented by its President, Ricardo Conde.

One of the central missions for the coming years is SpaceRider, a project involving the development of a reusable space vehicle designed to carry out scientific experiments in microgravity and to test technologies for other space missions. Its return site will be on the island of Santa Maria.

Paulo Estêvão announced that the regional contribution to the project will amount to three million euros, allocated to support the creation of a Space Technology Center in Santa Maria, a facility with a total projected cost of 15 million euros.

In addition to SpaceRider, the development of the space sector will also include suborbital—and later orbital—launches from Santa Maria, enabling the future deployment of satellites, according to the same statement.

The creation of a landing site in Santa Maria is a central component of Portugal’s support for the SpaceRider project. The infrastructure will include a landing control center, as well as a platform for the processing and analysis of payloads, equipped with highly specialized facilities and expertise.

“By an irony of fate—or perhaps not, but rather by a geographical inevitability—we once again become a point of return,” Paulo Estêvão said. “This time, a fundamental point of return: the place where space vehicles come back to Europe. We are the only return point in Europe for space vehicles. This gives us a strategic importance of the highest order.”

The protocol now signed establishes the general framework for cooperation between the Regional Government of the Azores and the Portuguese Space Agency, within the coordinated implementation of Portugal’s National Space Strategy and the Azores Space Strategy. It also defines guidelines for the joint coordination and execution of activities across the five priority axes set out in the Azores Space Strategy.

Both parties commit to cooperation along five strategic pillars: the development of the downstream sector—applications based on space-derived data; the installation of testing sites for space technologies and the integration of in situ networks; the promotion of access to space; the fostering of research, development, and innovation in space-related fields; and the dissemination, education, and cultivation of scientific culture connected to space.

In Diário Insular-José Lourenço-director

Translated into English as a community outreach program by the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL), in collaboration with Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno. PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.