Spain approves the creation of the Spanish Space Agency

The Spanish Space Agency has been approved by the Government

The Government of Spain, on Monday, January 3, approved the creation of the Spanish Space Agency. This will be part of the 2021 National Security Strategy. The publication that appears in the Official State Gazette gives almost no details about the organisation, but it does mention it on two occasions.
Although the date and budget to be invested in the institution are not yet known, the objectives to be achieved are already known. The Spanish Space Agency “will help to organise the powers, and establish a national policy that serves as a guide, both for the public, and private sectors”.
Through this state agency, the BOE publication assures that the Government will try to “maximize the return on investments, promote spaces for public and private collaboration, facilitate the dual use of space capabilities, and strengthen the national space industry sector in a clear and coherent manner”.
With these aforementioned purposes in mind, the Spanish Space Agency will act as an intermediary between national and international public and private entities, such as the European Space Agency (ESA) or NASA.
However, the agency will go beyond satisfying the commercial and scientific part of space technology, as it will also have a national defence responsibility.
According to the BOE publication, the Spanish Space Agency has a “component dedicated to National Security, to direct the effort in space matters, efficiently coordinate the different national organisations with responsibilities in the space sector, and unify international collaboration, and coordination”.
In the document, they define space as a, “global commonplace that has become a domain of intensive commercial exploitation, with the proliferation of constellations of satellites and commercial launchers”. Proof of this statement are the satellite constellations of Elon Musk’s ‘Starlink’, and Kuiper, launched by Jeff Bezos.
The text explains that the presence of a Spanish Space Agency is necessary for “the Spanish public-private cooperation model”. This body will serve to solve “the lack of legal regulations that facilitates irregular activity in space, and makes it difficult to protect strategic assets”, as reported by 20minutos.es.

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