On 28 and 29 June the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP) hosted in Santander the 9th Space Telecommunications Meeting, organized by the satellite operator Hispasat. Under the title Transformation in the satellite sector: disruption and innovation representatives from the top national and international space companies looked at the role played today by innovation in the Spanish space sector as well as the national industry’s position in the New Space scenario.

Jorge Potti, GMV´s Space General Manager, was the company’s representative at this event, which brought together over 70 national space entrepreneurs for a two-day debate of the changes now underway in satellite telecommunications and the importance of innovation in this sector. It is a sector now undergoing swingeing changes and a thoroughgoing transformation to meet the nonstop demand for connectivity, set up the new cost-cutting, speedier manufacturing systems, keep onside of changes in content-consuming habits, deal with the irruption of new actors and rockets and develop new technologies.

The meeting also found room for some of Spain’s outstanding space startups to debate the role now to be played by these young companies in this new setting.

The event was opened by the Secretary General of Coordination of Scientific Policy of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Rafael Rodrigo and the President of Hispasat, Elena Pisonero. The official closure then fell to Carlos Espinós, Hispasat CEO, and Magali Vaissière, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications (D/TIA) of the European Space Agency (ESA).