Germany's industry launches new space initiative

2021-12-01 19:05:25 GMT2021-12-02 03:05:25(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

BERLIN, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Federation of German Industries (BDI) launched on Wednesday a so-called new space initiative with five associations and 28 companies to strengthen networking between aerospace companies, start-ups and industry.

"With this new initiative, the BDI wants to send a strong signal of a joint departure in space travel for Germany and Europe," said BDI CEO Joachim Lang in Berlin on Wednesday. "Our goal is to make Germany and Europe fit for the digital transformation, the energy transition and Industry 4.0."

Increasing commercialization of aerospace and its interconnection with the non-space industry was a huge opportunity, according to Lang. Satellite-based data and applications were the basis for many new technologies such as connectivity, autonomous driving and smart farming.

In the United States, large tech companies were pushing into the aerospace market to secure long-term access to data generated in space by building their own satellite constellations. "Germany and Europe should not repeat the mistakes of the past and the resulting data dependency," stressed Lang.

The Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) already presented a "new space small satellites initiative" at the beginning of September to reflect the growing importance of space travel and its increasing commercialization.

A central component of the initiative is the construction of small satellites that could be launched with new innovative mini rockets, so-called microlaunchers.

According to an industry survey initiated by the BMWi, more than 15,000 satellites would be launched into space this decade, 90 percent of which would be small satellites. Enditem

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