YEESS: The new “space virtual enterprise, larger
than any other space enterprise in Europe, who
did not exist 5 years ago”
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Space is
not a big place, neither our planet Earth. It
looks an oxymoron, but the reality shows that
the Low Earth Orbits are now considerably
crowded, having grown from 1500 to over 8200
(UNOOSA, Jan22), out of which nearly a half
belong to a single US constellation, Starlink.
That is
why the European Commission and ESA decided to
launch the IRIS2
constellation,
an attempt to reserve the sovereignty and voice
of Europe into the game, going beyond secure
communications and including Earth Observation
and GNSS as additional fundamental services that
will differentiate the EU operation.
Since
the Lisbon 2000 objective (3% devoted to R+D+i),
Europe keeps repeating itself its strengths in
research capacities (now 3rd in the
world after China and US), and its weaknesses in
technology transfer (TT), with poorer results in
entrepreneurship. Mazzucato (“The
entrepreneurial State”) proposes to change this
perspective of poor TT into the analysis of the
industrial infrastructure, its behaviour, its
readiness to invest in technology as well as the
purchase policies and practices of the public
institutions.
Recently
ESA has awarded 9 Copernicus Contributing
Missions that soon will be disclosed, showing a
new attitude towards the opportunity, pointing
at new players with high potential.
And The
European Commission has dictated the rule of 30%
SME content in the aforementioned IRIS2
open competition.
But is
this willingness to push the European Space SMEs
corresponding to an industrial reality?
Otherwise, it could be a lost effort.
In a
truly bottom-up, continuous and open process,
the most promising European Space SMEs have
grown the Young European Enterprises Syndicate
for Space, YEESS. If we imagined this perimeter
of activities as a single virtual company, we
could show the leadership of YEESS in a robust
set of technologies and services like space
deployers, rockets, motors, thrusters, antennas,
RFI, optical cameras, EO full solutions or
launch services, amongst others. They are
provided by companies that successfully sell
those technologies outside Europe. This
catalogue can hardly be found outside YEESS,
especially with the dominant focus into small
satellites.
Furthermore, the majority of our members are
Gazelle companies (as defined by Eurostat), who
have arrived at over 900 jobs, mainly highly
skilled engineers, that did not exist 5 years
ago, who exist based on new private investments
and who take growth as a strong commitment with
all stakeholders. This segment represents the
vast majority of the growth and new employment
of the space sector.
Not many
other initiatives, from various economy sectors,
can provide this given to new generations in
Europe. Our common destiny, through various
countries in Europe, is also a destiny of
employment, technology, space challenges and
adventure.
But this
initiative requires continuous attention, care
and intelligence, in other to have an
international consolidation that keeps the
aggressive growth rate.
Soon
YEESS will provide its publication from its
observatory of business data, offering those
evidences as a best practice for companies and
institutions.
And
therefore, the initiatives like Copernicus
Contributing Missions or IRIS2
are a must that
makes YEESS sustainable. Thank you for these
bold steps.
Juan Tomás Hernani
President of YEESS
The
YEESS syndicate is an alliance of young European
space entreprises at the service of Europe.
YEESS entreprises are agile and available to
reinvent our
transportation on Earth and to Moon and Mars.
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