The joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%) aims to speed up the shift to digital platform infrastructures of space business, encouraging digital innovation in telecommunications, observation, navigation and exploration, for instance. It is hoped the centre will help generate new contacts and synergies with public research organisations and startups and newspace companies. No timeframe was given as to the opening of the centre.

Economy minister Etienne Schneider signed the memorandum of understanding on Monday as one of his last acts before stepping down from politics the following day.

Thales Alenia Space CEO Jean-Loïc Galle signed on behalf of the company. The MoU includes a Letter of Intent that was signed on 18 June 2019 between the Luxembourg Government and Thales Alenia Space for the creation of the digital centre of excellence.

The space sector is one of the government’s economic development priorities and currently contributes around 2% of GDP.