The Diplomat
The Spanish engineer Francisco Javier Benedicto was appointed on Thursday to the position of Director of Satellite Navigation Programs of the European Space Agency (ESA), from which he will take on the challenge of completing the deployment of Galileo, the major European project for global positioning and navigation.
The appointment was unanimously ratified by the full ESA Council, which highlighted his important contribution as the person responsible for the development programs of the European satellite navigation systems Galileo and EGNOS. His appointment had been proposed by the Director General of the European Space Agency himself, the Austrian Josef Aschbacher.
Javier Benedicto, who will replace Paul Verhoef and will take office on February 16, 2022, thus puts an end to four years without a Spanish presence at the top of ESA (based in Paris). Spanish astrophysicist Álvaro Giménez served as director of the Science program between 2011 and the end of 2017, when his term ended two years ahead of schedule.
“This appointment is a recognition of the professional value of one of the most valued experts worldwide in the field of telecommunications and whose role has been key, in recent decades, in the development of the European satellite navigation systems Galileo and EGNOS,” the Ministry of Science and Innovation stated in a press release. Likewise, “this appointment of a highly qualified expert of Spanish nationality also certifies the important role that Spain continues to play in the field of knowledge and the space industry and its consideration as a reliable partner and reference country and as one of the leading countries in European space programs,” it continued.
Javier Benedicto, 64 years old and fluent in Spanish, English, French, Italian, Dutch, Catalan and Japanese, is the author of a hundred articles in scientific publications and three international ESA patents. He joined ESA in 1985 to work on the development of microwave equipment for television and mobile telephony. In 1995, he was appointed director of the EGNOS project, the seed of the future Galileo project promoted by the European Union, and in 2000, he was appointed director of the Galileo satellite navigation program, which has led to a global telecommunications revolution due to its technological capabilities and its civil applications in traffic, positioning, communications, environment and security, among others, and generates nearly 100,000 highly qualified jobs.
The Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, Spain’s representative on the European Union’s Competitiveness Council and ESA’s Ministerial Council – the highest governing bodies for space in Europe – recently held a bilateral meeting in Madrid with Josef Asbascher to discuss Spain’s position in the field of space programs. According to the Ministry, European satellite navigation programs are “of capital importance for Spain”, since they have a European Union budget of close to 6,000 million euros for the period 2021-2027 and, to date, Spanish companies have already achieved significant returns in the form of contracts originating in these programs, returns that are expected to continue to occur in the coming years.
