The six contracts for the third Axis (Axis 3) of the “National Microsatellite Program,” between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the five consortia, were signed on Thursday at the Ministry of Digital Governance in the presence of the Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou; the Deputy Minister, Konstantinos Kyranakis; and the General Secretary of Telecommunications and Posts, Konstantinos Karantzalos. 

On behalf of ESA, the Head of the National Earth Observation Microsatellite Program, Svein-Jarle Lokas, signed the agreements.

“Axis 3” refers to an integrated initiative to develop geospatial services, designed to meet the national needs of the public sector of Greece. More specifically, it includes the development of a Space Hub for the processing and distribution of satellite data, as well as a series of specialized services and products in five different sectors: agriculture, forests, water, land, and security. 

In this context, thermal, optical, and SAR data from Microsatellites will be used to draw up more effective policies in the aforementioned sectors, while data from European and international satellite missions will also be used in this direction.

The Axis 3 budget is 17 million Euros, financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0” and implemented in collaboration with ESA. 

With this investment, Greece becomes stronger in the field of space technology and applications related to civil protection and crisis response. Reliable services will be provided in both the public and private sectors for decision support, resource management, and natural disaster response.

It is worth noting that the implementation of Axis 3 of the “National Microsatellite Program” is carried out entirely by Greek companies and institutions, supporting the national technological capacity and strengthening the autonomous management of critical information.

Specifically, the leaders of each consortium are Planetek Hellas for the Government Hub project and the security services project, AgroApps for agriculture monitoring services, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki for forest monitoring, Totalview for water monitoring, and GEOSYSTEMS HELLAS A.E. for earth monitoring.

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