The 1St Space Law Congress was held last November, organized by the Instituto de la Ingeniería de España (Spanish Institute of Engineering) and the Observatorio Jurídico Aeroespacial (Aerospace Legal Observatory). It was entitled “The Need for regulating the Spanish space sector.”
This first congress offered an overview of the most important aspects of the Spanish space sector in relation to the convenience of regulating space activities and the Space Law, as well as the urgent need to create a Spanish Space Agency.
Here, the President of TEDAE, Ricardo Martí Fluxá, participated in the opening of the Congress, stressing that “space has now become just another geographical area and, therefore, the law and its application are an essential need (...) The launch of satellites, the exploitation of asteroids or planets, the coexistence at the space station and the buildup of space junk leads to a series of legal matters that must be studied and addressed,” he added.
Focusing on the space sector, Martí Fluxá highlighted its important efforts to become a “strategic sector for society and the Spanish economy” that “with effort and the support of the public sector, it has gone from being systems supplier to taking part in every stage in the lifecycle of space products.”
However, “new technologies are now a key element in driving our industry,” a space industry that “is digitalized, interconnected and sustainable, and will continue being necessary in an increasingly complex and digital world.”
This is why the President of TEDAE stressed “the need for an Aerospace PERTE (Strategic Recovery Project) that will enable us to face the challenges before us” with the support of “the European recovery funds, which must be an aid to support the transformation of leading sectors, such as space.” In relation to this, he characterized the creation of a Spanish Space Agency as “a guarantee to continue the space activities.”
Furthermore, Martí Fluxá highlighted the role of today’s industry in “being capable of training the next generation of experts in the new technologies to come and connect students with the companies and companies with research.”
The President of the Spanish Institute of Engineering, José Trigueros Rodrigo; the President of Asociacion Española de Derecho Aeronáutico y Espacial, Elisa González, and the professor of the Department of Administrative Law of Complutense University of Madrid, Fernando González Botija, participated in the opening event of the Congress alongside the president of TEDAE.
This first Congress saw roundtables that discussed the need for a Spanish space law, the political opinion of the Congress of Deputies, with representatives from the main political parties, as well as the international outlook of the sector with space business and the challenges and opportunities in the Spanish space sector with the matter of the creation of a Spanish Space Agency in the horizon.
Business opportunities in the realm of space and its international context were analyzed to raise political awareness about a basic, essential and strategic sector with a great ability to grow and which significantly benefits society as a whole.
