Telecoms and Digital Policy Minister Nikos Pappas will be presenting lawmakers with a bill inaugurating Greece’s first space agency, the ministry said in an announcement on Monday.

The agency will be a public limited company called National Center for Space Applications (EKDE in Greek), aimed at “making up for the country’s huge deficit in this area,” the ministry said.

“The launch of the Hellas Sat satellite this year will create important commercial opportunities, which will be developed by a space policy agency along European lines,” the announcement said.

According to the ministry, EKDE will have the right to lease transponders that are not being used by the Greek state and will also act as an intermediary between Greek and international centers in the fields of commercial, scientific and military research.

The company will also be tasked with exploring space technology as a civil protection tool by developing applications for environmental monitoring, fire prevention and control, monitoring illegal construction, etc.

“Greece is one of the few European countries that does not have an organization for commercially and scientifically utilizing its rights or the plethora of research and scientific applications and resources available through the European Space Agency,” Pappas said when presenting the bill.

Quelle: ekathimerini