It’s mid-2020, in Catalonia. Covid is claiming victims every day, and the authorities’ only concern remains buying ventilators and protective equipment, and stopping the advance of the virus. And yet, in a Barcelona office that has nothing to do with healthcare, someone sits down at their desk, takes off their mask, and thinks it would be a good idea to launch satellites into space. Shortly after, on October 27, 2020, the Generalitat de Catalunya presents its “New Space” strategy to relaunch the small-satellite industry. What has changed since then?<\/p>\n
To understand Barcelona’s aerospace boom, you need to focus on two pioneering companies based in the city: Open Cosmos and Sateliot. The first was founded in 2015 and is the shipyard, so to speak \u2014 it handles satellite construction. The second was born in 2018 and operates as the shipowner, or operator, of that satellite network. “We focused on the internet of things because what was being done made no sense at all \u2014 like installing an 80-centimeter antenna just to find out the water level in a tank in some remote village,” explains Jaume Sanpera, CEO of Sateliot, describing the idea behind the company’s founding.<\/p>\n
From the outset, the proposal won over the authorities because it has almost every advantage: it cuts costs, benefits society, and, most importantly, creates value. The idea isn’t so much to compete with giants like Starlink, but to build a satellite network that provides support and guarantees European technological sovereignty in certain strategic uses. Javier Ortega Figueiral, an aerospace consultant and specialized journalist, believes there’s something more behind this interest, tied to the militaristic trend sweeping the planet: “The acceleration seen between 2024 and 2026 was driven by the geopolitical context \u2014 this moment, marked by defense investment.”<\/p>\n
Sateliot, 20 percent owned by the Spanish state, currently has six satellites in orbit, two of which are for commercial use. In the second half of 2026 and in 2027, it plans to launch more than twenty more \u2014 on Elon Musk’s rockets \u2014 an undertaking that would be difficult to carry out without a supporting industrial network. “The cluster effect works: one company gives rise to another. We ourselves, for example, have already created other companies. What I mean is that our needs have caused other businesses to flourish,” says Sanpera, describing the new industrial hub slowly taking shape in Barcelona.<\/p>\n
The fact is that this new industry bears no resemblance at all to the one that made Barcelona famous in the 19th and 20th centuries. The old red-brick factories of the Poblenou district no longer have smoking chimneys, or trucks waiting at the gate to load goods. Now the only machines are computers, and goods travel through the cloud. Workers no longer wear uniforms either, and if they get dirty, it’s because they accidentally spilled on themselves the specialty coffee they bought for three euros at the new caf\u00e9 on the corner. “The transformation brings with it the usual trade-offs: rising home and rental prices, the displacement of longtime residents,” says Javier Ortega Figueiral.<\/p>\n
Currently there are around 80 companies in the sector established in the area, employing nearly two thousand people \u2014 in a city that didn’t even offer aerospace engineering degree programs until 2002. “25 percent of the workforce is made up of people from the space sector who were working abroad and have returned to Spain,” says Sanpera, describing the opportunity this aerospace boom has represented for many professionals.<\/p>\n
Today, in the middle of 2026, a Chilean farmer in a remote area with no mobile coverage takes his phone out of his pocket because he’s just received a notification. An app informs him that the moisture level in his field has dropped below what’s needed to keep his crop going. He quickly hops in his truck and heads to the plantation to turn on the irrigation. All thanks to a satellite “made in Barcelona.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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