ESA Space Operations and Space Safety activities: supporting Europe’s innovation, competitiveness and market opportunities [Jul/2022]
As Europe's centre of excellence for satellite operation,
ESOC is home to the engineering teams that control spacecraft in orbit, manage ESA’s
global tracking station network, and design and build the systems on the ground
that support missions in space. Since 1967, more than 80 satellites belonging
to ESA and its partners have been successfully flown from Darmstadt, Germany.
A study by the consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
was conducted to update the large 2019 socio-economic impact assessment of the ESA
Operations activities.
Over the time period 2019-2021, the overall GDP impact, measured in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA) resulting from ESA OPS spending, is €682 million. The spending refers to contracts for goods and/or services that support the ground systems engineering and operations activities. In terms of employment, the procurement of goods and services through ESA OPS over the time period 2019-2021 resulted in total employment supported almost 3,600 person-years.
The study also covered a total of seven case studies evaluating
ex-ante the socio-economic impacts of key Space Safety projects proposed at
CM22 (ESA upcoming Ministerial Council). The seven selected case studies
provide concise and robust evidence of the benefits generated, covering the
main pillars of ESA Space Safety Programme:
- Space Weather (SWE): Aurora Oval Monitoring Mission and Nanosats;
- Space Debris: Laser Tracking and Momentum Transfer and Destructive Re-entry Assessment Container Object (DRACO);
- Planetary Defence: Flyeye Telescope and Mission in the InfraRed (NEOMIR);
- One cross-cutting case study on the competitiveness segment.
The full study report can be accessed in the restricted area here (please log in before).