Spanish Space Station to be in operation by early 2023

SPAIN is reaching for the stars – literally – with its own space station and even a Space Council being set up within its government in the next few months.

President Pedro Sánchez, speaking at INTA-NASA Training and Visitor Centre in Robledo de Chavela (Madrid region), said the 'Spanish Space Station' would be in full operation 'by the beginning of 2023'.

An 'inter-ministerial' group, focusing on speeding up works needed to get the space station in operation, known as a 'Space Council', would be created shortly, Sánchez revealed.

He said the Spanish Space Station 'would not be in Madrid', which annoyed the regional government – run by the right-wing PP party, historically in opposition to the socialists (PSOE) of which Sánchez is leader – but the decision makes sense, since the country's biggest corporations and headquarters remain very centralised in Madrid and Barcelona, concentrating the greatest meaningful job opportunities in the two largest cities rather than spreading them out around the country.

This comes as part of a wider government plan to diffuse and decentralise major public bodies and the corporate fabric, which is welcomed by residents and authorities in small towns, villages, coastal areas and remote rural parts, albeit much less so by those in Madrid.

Investment in the aeronautical and aerospace industries will 'help safeguard the wellbeing of current and future generations', Sánchez stresses.

He says the 'space race' is crucial and strategic for 'all the largest countries on earth', since it is central to everything from telecommunications and transport through to security, defence, and even agriculture, curbing climate change and tackling natural disasters, like floods and forest fires.

Science minister Diana Morant had already spoken about the country's key rôle in the space industry and its focus on decentralisation back in January.

Diana, 43, is originally from Gandia (southern Valencia province), a telecommunications engineering graduate and formerly mayoress of the town from May 2015, so she is very aware of the need to diffuse major job opportunities.

“We need to understand that Spain doesn't start and finish in Madrid, and that science is very distributed in our country,” she said at the time.

The space industry is, clearly, not just about sending up space ships to look for life on other planets or stick flags on the moon, and it is not merely the prerogative of countries with huge land-mass, global power, or both.

Whilst usually associated with the USA and Russia, other, much smaller countries have played major parts in space activity – Spain included.

In addition to the observatories in the Canary Islands, where Queen musician Brian May spent years researching his PhD in astrophysics in the 1970s, Spain's rôle in the moon landings were so vital that, without its across-the-board efforts and frantic crisis-resolving, Neil Armstrong may never have been able to pronounce his historical 'one small step for man' catchphrase.

And Diana Morant's predecessor as science minister, Pedro Duque, was Spain's first man on the moon and second man in space after Miguel López-Alegría, having taken part in missions in 1998 and 2003.