On October 12th, the “Groupement luxembourgeois de l’aéronautique et de l’espace” (GLAE) celebrated its 15th anniversary in the Chamber of Commerce in presence of the Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, and many representatives of the industry.

In fact, GLAE turned 15 already last year, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic the celebrations only took place this year.

GLAE was founded as a non-profit making organization in February 2005 within the framework of FEDIL - The Voice of Luxembourg’s Industry. The founding members of GLAE are POST Luxembourg, HITEC Luxembourg, LUXSPACE, SES and TELINDUS Luxembourg. The 1st GLAE meeting was held on February 18th, 2005. The same year, Luxembourg became the 17th member of the European Space Agency (ESA).

GLAE has several missions and amongst others offers Luxembourg companies the opportunity to create synergies at the national and European level and seeks to be the interlocutor of the Government for addressing all questions in relation to initiatives taken by the authorities in the context of ESA programs and establishment of a space policy in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

For GLAE members space is the core of important strategic challenges as it concerns both citizens and enterprises. Important topics are for example the independent access to information, the security and defense policy and the implementation of advanced technologies in different sectors of the economy.

GLAE is therefore also a key partner of the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA), with which GLAE has fruitful exchanges on a regular basis.

Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot says: “Through the expertise of its member companies, GLAE has established itself over the past 15 years as a privileged interlocutor of the successive governments. This continuous interaction has enabled the Luxembourg space sector to thrive.”

Yves Elsen, President of GLAE, says: “Our sector faces three major challenges in the coming years. The first is to attract and retain talent. The second is to develop vocational training. And the third is to promote the sector as well as public-private partnerships.”

Therefore, GLAE supports young talents, a topic of outmost importance for the future of the sector by participating and sponsoring different initiatives, like the Alpbach Summer School, the ‘Act in Space’ hackathon, an initiative to foster and enforce entrepreneurial and innovation management practices by offering a game-based learning experience, the UNIVERSEH (European Space University for Earth and Humanity) project and the Asteroid Day whose mission is to educate the public about the risks and opportunities of asteroids.

GLAE members also participate on a regular basis in economic missions abroad and are present on the PARIS Air Show (Le Bourget) or the Toulouse Space Show.

GLAE is a member of SME4SPACE, whose aim is to give a voice to Space SMEs’ viewpoint in a coordinated way and to facilitate the access of SMEs to space activities in general and in particular to ESA and EU programs.

During the 15th anniversary celebrations, the invitees listened to a keynote speech of Mr. Marco Fuchs , CEO of OHB SE and to exciting discussions during a round table about “Developments, trends and challenges in the Luxembourg Space Sector” with Mr. Marco Fuchs, CEO of OHB SE, Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten, Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), Mr. Marc Serres, CEO of the Luxembourg Space Agency, Mr. Ferdinand Kayser, Advisor to the Management of SES and Julien-Alexandre Lamamy, Managing Director of ispace Europe. The round table was moderated by Lisa Burke.

Press release by FEDIL