The Poster Child For Space Agencies

From the space entrepreneur’s point of view, the proliferation of agencies remains less important than the approachability and support programmes available (Photo © OQ Technology)

The launch of the Luxembourg Space Agency in 2018, 60 years after NASA was established, coincided with a watershed moment for national space activities. Luxembourg landed an important place at the space table by harnessing the power of commercial space and addressing the question of space resources ownership.

No-one batted an eye when NASA launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in November 2021. Today, the importance of commercial operators in space activities is a given. Yet, when Gary Martin was working as a space architect for the agency’s Ames research centre, commercial space was to be avoided like a black hole. “I knew that it was key to opening up space,” he says. With some gentle nudging from Pete Worden, NASA began developing commercial space partnerships, looking at economic activities, like space mining. “We had a Luxembourg intern working at Ames at the time. He thought Luxembourg might be interested in this kind of space activity because of the success of SES,” Martin says. There followed talks with then economy minister Etienne Schneider, workshops and feasibility studies, paving the way for the creation of the space agency two years later.

“You will have people and robots working on the moon, but they want a nice habitation. A nice chair to sit in after work, a pizza, a beer…every one of those things is a business case.”

Gary Martin, Advisory Board Member of the International Space Masters at the University of Luxembourg

The poster child

Before retiring in January 2022, Martin advised the Luxembourg economy ministry and taught at the International Space University. “I always turn to Luxembourg as the poster child. For me, it’s a really good example of what a country can do,” he says. Luxembourg’s strategy was to get everyone, including neighbouring countries, “onboard, politically” and address a question that NASA had neglected—the ownership of resources mined in space. Forget space hardware and sky-high budgets, it turns out that you can achieve a lot with old-fashioned diplomacy. Luxembourg leveraged its strength by getting governments and agencies together and establishing its own legal framework. In July 2017, Luxembourg was the second country in the world to pass a space law, reinforcing private operators’ rights to the space resources they extract. More legislation has followed, and Luxembourg has signed scores of MoUs with other states or agencies. “You need to be able to create the expertise to do work,” says Martin, who helped to develop the Space Master at the University of Luxembourg. The national agency along with ESA are helping space firms develop research and create IP in Luxembourg. “Luxembourg stands out as an IP thought leader in the area of space resources, which I personally think is the best area. It’s a long shot pay off but when it does pay off, it’s going to be unbelievable,” says Martin. “You will have people and robots working on the moon, but they want a nice habitation. A nice chair to sit in after work, a pizza, a beer…every one of those things is a business case.” China, whose space roots can be traced back to the 1950s, is expected to have a moon base before any other nation and Martin believes that they’ll rent out space when they do.

The year the Luxembourg Space Agency launched, there were 72 different government space agencies, of which only 14 have launch capability. Among the newer agencies are Australia, whose Australian Space Agency (ASA) hit the ground running when it launched in 2018, thanks in large part to $700m investment in the civil space sector. Unlike the LSA, its focus is on hardware. In 2021, the agency announced plans to launch an Australian-made lunar rover to be deployed by NASA in 2026. At the time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he expected the sector would add 20,000 new, high-skilled jobs and add $12 billion to the economy by 2030. Portugal, meanwhile, turned a few heads when it launched its space agency a year later in 2019. While the nation’s space heritage does not compare to Luxembourg’s SES story, what Portugal does have is “a history of entrepreneurship, trying to get companies started, so space would be an area,” says Martin.

A space heritage is less important than a sound scientific foundation. It is perhaps no surprise that of all the 40 best nations for science featured in Scientific America in 2015, all now have space agencies or institutions. Because in addition to the 72 space agencies, there are countless more nations who have space-related activities within technology or economy ministries. Since space extends to so many areas of life, from communications to data processing and skills and training, Martin reckons that “all countries are doing something with space.”

The creation of an agency is considered more of a “tactical approach”. Perhaps the biggest agency launch will be that of the African Space Agency, planned for 2023. It will bring together the activities of a continent which has over 40 satellites in orbit and where at least 20 nations now have space programmes. The Economist credits the disruption of small, lower-cost satellites, to the fact that nations including Mauritius can jump aboard.

“When I talk to institutions in different countries and say we’re from Luxembourg, they know the space programme and see it as a good example to follow.”

Omar Qaise, Founder & CEO of OQ Technology

For the startups

From the space entrepreneur’s point of view, the proliferation of agencies remains less important than the approachability and support programmes available. “For every startup the holy grail is the US,” says Omar Qaise, founder of OQ Technology, an IoT startup which launched in Luxembourg in 2016. He side-stepped his native Germany for Luxembourg, with its clear communication and funding programmes. “It was amazing how you could talk directly to the decision makers there,” he recalls. Space agencies and activities abroad are, he says, critical for expanding his business activities to target markets in the Middle East and on the African continent. One of the most interesting for him as an entrepreneur active with satellites is the Rwanda Space Agency, established in March 2021 focusing on geospatial services for agriculture, urban plan, emergency response and weather forecasting. This builds on a momentum begun with the 2019 launch of its first satellite.

Qaise meanwhile says that the LSA provides a good reference for multilateral operations. “When I talk to institutions in different countries and say we’re from Luxembourg, they know the space programme and see it as a good example to follow,” says Qaise. “I didn’t expect that when we started five years ago, Luxembourg would have that impact.”


This article was first published in the Silicon Luxembourg magazine. Read the full digital version of the magazine on our website, here. You can also choose to receive a hard copy at the office or at home. Subscribe now.

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