It is a large-scale project which marks one of the key elements of the economic revival of Charleroi and Wallonia. “Ultimately, 500 satellites should come out each year from the future factory which will be set up in Marcinelle”, explains Benoit Deper, head of Aerospacelab. “We left the start-up status to grow and double our staff every year. We are at 130 people and we expect to reach 260 workers next year.“And the concrete things are approaching. The start of construction work on the factory is announced for this summer.
Aerospacelab satellites will serve “to earth observation. We need a large sampling, many images with different tools to observe our planet. Monitoring the consequences of climate change, for example. Satellites revolve in orbit around the earth so they only spend 7 minutes a day over Belgium, for example. You need a lot more data to get a full picture.” Demand would therefore be very strong and, according to Aerospacelab officials, “there is no other project of the same magnitude in Europe“.
Defense developments for NATO
Observation will not only have civilian outlets. According to the Secretary of State, Thomas Dermine, the satellites “can have a principle of dual use. Mixed use. Defense is very interested in the development of cybersecurity and space security. And we know that a euro spent on Defense is not worth another euro. If we invests in American F-35s, the repercussions in terms of employment and industrialization will be weak here. If, on the other hand, we invest in satellites used for defense intelligence, we realize that everything can be produced here, and in this case, in Charleroi.
Confirmation from the European Commissioner, Thierry Breton: “There is a major challenge in developing the autonomy of our space sector. We cannot depend on the Russians or the Chinese to develop our presence in space. We saw it over Ukraine. A satellite has been attacked. So the sky, and space are key elements in defense. Even if the civil developments are important and numerous. Like GPS and WIFI which will provide connection to remote areas.”
The challenge for Belgian Defense will be to try to no longer depend on the bandwidth used on American satellites, mainly. These are called usage shares which Belgium owns with neighboring countries. Like some kind of satellite rental that doesn’t belong to you. For Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder, “new threats must be faced, particularly in the east of the European continent. And we must continue to work with European countries. It’s good to have a Belgian satellite. But it is above all important to work together on a constellation of satellites useful for our European defence.”
