The General Assembly of the SPACE PL took place under the sign of 10 years of the organisation as well as the discussion on the space sector’s future.
26 May 2022 the SPACE PL General Assembly took place. During the event, stakeholders adopted the report on activity in the previous year and accepted the plan of work in 2022. This year, the SPACE PL has a jubilee of 10 years. During the last decade, the organisation has risen from several to 70 entities, playing a significant role in the development of the space sector in Poland. Today, the SPACE PL is the only union of employers representing interests of the business of this required and high-specialistic industry, contributing to the growing the using of the Polish technologies in outer space.
During the event, actual information on the ESA exploration programmes and the fate of the National Space Program was also presented.
It has to be emphasised that in 2021, despite the epidemiological obstacles, the SPACE PL developed a wide spectrum of valuable initiatives. Among others, representatives of the organisation participated in pre-consultations of the National Space Programme, supporting the creation of a comprehensive and uniform document for the sector’s future. The SPACE PL organised the next edition of the Space Sector Forum (on-line) with the participation of meaningful domestic and foreign guests and over 300 listeners on-line. In 2022, in the frame of activities for identification of new foreign markets, the Polish-Lithuanian Space Industry Day was organised, gathering business entites from both countries interested in business cooperation.
An ambitious plan of work is developing in 2022. In autumn of this year, the ESA Ministerial Council is planned to be taken place. During this event, the ESA member states will declare how much funds and for which space missions will allocate from their national budgets. While the position of the Polish government has not been presented so far, it is said that the current level of funding for optional programmes will be maintained at the current level (EUR 39 million for 2023-25). The SPACE PL has already organized a series of meetings with the Polish delegates to the ESA and is preparing to issue recommendations to the Delegation on the amount of subscription to optional ESA programmes.
In 2022, the SPACE PL conducts also activities for gaining external funds for the sector’s development. The organisation is a member of the consortium developing the ESA’s programme entitled TEAM (Technology Ambassadors and Brokers). It is aimed at promoting and supporting space technology transfer to the non-space industry. This issue will be a topic of two debates during The Intelligent Development Forum in Uniejów and ITM Industry Europe Fair in Poznań. The SPACE PL will also be present at key foreign events, such as the International Astronautic Congress in Paris and the Space Tech Expo in Bremen. In 2022, several jubilee initiatives are planned with the culmination in the autumn, when the space industry will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Poland’s accession to the ESA as well as the jubilee of the Association’s establishment.
Picture: the SPACE PL.
