Portugal Space Agency

Portugal Space Agency External Facebook link Portugal Space Agency

On 14^th November 2000 the Portuguese Government joined European Space agency (ESA)

AISLP

The big plan is to building a spaceport on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores to be operational by mid-2021, becoming a base for launching small satellites.

The proposed commercial launch complex in the Azores, called the Atlantic International Satellite Launch Programme (AISLP), has just completed an international round of expressions of interest that has seen fourteen companies and organisations from Europe, Russia, and the United States to build the spaceport.

The Island of Santa maria offers a privileged geographic location in the middle of the Atlantic, permitting an unobstructed launch trajectory, over the sea, for polar or SSO orbits, as well as a unique

position between europe, the Americas and Africa, representing a major advantage compared to other spaceports in the world.

AISLP plan to offer affordable services to those who are going to launch satellites weighing up to 500kg into polar orbits, or those, synchronized with the Sun at an altitude ranging from 400 to 1,000km above Earth.

STARlab project

The STARlab project is a cooperative programme with China for a laboratory that will build microsatellites for oceanographic research between Chinese and Portuguese scientists and researchers.

STARlab will establish facilities in Matosinhos and Peniche in Portugal and in Shanghai in China, and will construct the satellites to carry out detailed research in the interactions between oceanography and agriculture and fisheries.

Side Fact: Lajes Air Base on Terceira island, Azores is home to the US 65th Air Base Wing until 2015, NASA also has staff there and was a emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle.