Azores to host meetings of the Steering and Coordination Committees of European SST consortium
The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology highlighted the importance of investing in infrastructures for the storage, processing and availability of Earth observation data in the Azores, such as Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST), whose National Operations Centre will be installed on Terceira Island.
Gui Menezes stressed that, with the participation in this programme, the Region will benefit from European Union funds, which represent "additional financing for the operation of existing infrastructures in the archipelago in this field. It also contributes to the development of regional capabilities in this sector, the technical training of human resources and the creation of specialised employment."
Gui Menezes spoke during the 34th meeting of the Steering Committee of the European SST Consortium that is taking place in Ponta Delgada with the representatives of the eight countries that make up the European SST consortium: Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Romania and Portugal.
The meeting also addressed matters related to the development of the SST programme, which is primarily aimed at guaranteeing Europe the independence of operating systems already installed by other powers. This goal will be achieved through the development of its capabilities for the monitoring, identification and tracking of objects in Space which, travelling in orbits close to the Earth, could pose a real danger to space infrastructures, space access missions and citizen safety should they enter into the atmosphere.
The Regional Secretary defended that, with the implementation of the Data Operations Centre at the Terceira Science and Technology Park - TERINOV, the Azores are "at the heart of this national programme that will raise them to prominence in the European Space domain."
The 16th meeting of the SST Coordination Committee with representatives of the eight countries of the consortium already took place in Ponta Delgada on May 14; Portugal was represented by the Azores Mission for Space (EMA-Space) team.
Besides the installation of the Data Operations Centre on Terceira Island, whose Cooperation Protocol was signed between the Regional Government and the Ministry of National Defence in February, the SST programme provides for the installation of an optical site on São Miguel through the adaptation of an existing telescope, which will be managed by the RAEGE Azores Association.