The rocket engine test centre of the NewSpace Strategy at the Lleida-Alguaire airport gets off the ground

The Minister of Business and Work, Roger Torrent i Ramió, and the Minister of Territory, Ester Capella i Farré, have today chaired the act of presentation of the first step for the establishment of the rocket engine test centre at Lleida-Alguaire Airport, an infrastructure framed in the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia promoted by the Government to foster the new space economy.

As highlighted in the preliminary draft of the tender for the new test centre, drafted on the basis of the guidelines and technical studies drawn up by the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), Europe currently has few suitable environments or spaces to conduct propulsion tests for rocket launchers. Those that exist are saturated and have waiting lists of more than a year before they can be used.

Therefore, having these infrastructures in Catalonia represents an opportunity to position the country in this emerging market and to turn Lleida-Alguaire into a reference space and pole of attraction for public and private projects of the local and global aerospace ecosystem, an industrial sector with high added value.

The act began with the signing of the award contract for the first phase of the project to Pangea Aerospace, represented by its co-founder and CEO, Adrià Argemí Samsó. This first phase includes the conditioning works of the subcomponent test bed (ignitors, injectors, materials, etc.) and the drafting of the constructive project, in the same space, of the test bed for rocket engines up to 500 kilonewtons of power that will integrate the new centre.

The Secretary of Digital Policy, Gina Tost i Faus, the Secretary of Mobility and Infrastructure, Marc Sanglas i Alcantarilla, and the President of Aeroports de Catalunya (the tendering entity), Daniel Albalate Del Sol, were present along with representatives of the agents driving the NewSpace Strategy.

The IEEC was represented by its director, Ignasi Ribas, together with the director of the Area for the Promotion of the Space Sector of Catalonia (APEC), Josep Colomé, and the head of the APEC Infrastructure Office, Helena Carré.