The Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) is the national

space agency Space is a three-dimensional In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (''coordinates'') are required to determine the position (geometry), ...

of the Grand Duchy of

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. It was founded on September 12, 2018, by Luxembourg's Economy Minister Étienne Schneider.

Goal

The goal of the Luxembourg Space Agency is to use Luxembourg's state funds to provide private companies, start-ups and organizations in the field of

space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

with financial support, especially those working on

asteroid mining Asteroid mining is the hypothetical extractivism, extraction of materials from asteroids and other minor planets, including near-Earth objects. Notable asteroid mining challenges include the high cost of spaceflight, unreliable identification ...

. In a 2021 ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'' interview, LSA CEO Marc Serres stated that “there was perhaps a little misconception about asteroid mining at the beginning,” and that the primary goal of the LSA is not asteroid mining, but rather

In-Situ Resource Utilization In space exploration, in situ resource utilization (ISRU) is the practice of collection, processing, storing and use of materials found or manufactured on other astronomical objects (the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.) that replace materials th ...

(ISRU). One of Luxembourg's key contributions to global space exploration is not probes or launch vehicles, but rather the legal framework and bureaucracy required to govern space activities, both by governments and private firms. As of 2023 there are approximately 70 private space companies, with a combined workforce of 1,400 individuals and accounting for 2% of Luxembourg's

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...

, headquartered in Luxembourg due to its status as a

corporate haven Corporate haven, corporate tax haven, or multinational tax haven is used to describe a jurisdiction that multinational corporations find attractive for establishing subsidiaries or Incorporation (business), incorporation of regional or main company ...

, with Luxembourg passing the first regulatory act for private spaceflight in the world in 2020. Unlike most other government run public space agencies, the LSA is modeled after a private firm, with a CEO instead of a director or president, and with the primary goal of the agency "to diversify our economy through space activities,” and turn a profit. In late 2023 LSA outlined a 4-year plan to double the space industry's contribution to the Luxembourger GDP from 2% to 4% by 2027.

History

International cooperation

The LSA was one of the founding members of the

Artemis Accords The Artemis Accords are a series of non-binding multilateral arrangements between the United States government and other world governments that elaborates on the norms expected to be followed in outer space. The Accords are related to the Artem ...

, a treaty of international cooperation led by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

for its

Artemis Program The Artemis program is a Exploration of the Moon, Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. The program's stated long-ter ...

which will see international technology used to help send American, and international, astronauts to the moon. At the 70th

International Astronautical Congress The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is an annual meeting of the actors in the discipline of space science. It is hosted by one of the national society members of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), with the support of ...

on October 22, 2019, LSA and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to further cooperation in lunar exploration, with a particular emphasis on advancing commercial opportunities. Specifically, the memorandum focused on the LSA acting as a regulatory agency for the numerous private firms based in Luxembourg, to make sure that they were still following NASA guidelines for future Artemis missions.

ISRU specialization

In 2019 LSA signed a partnership with the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

(ESA) to promote and develop the research, economic and legal aspects of

(ISRU) as a way to reduce costs for future space missions, by having spacecraft produce resources such as fuel in the field. The scope of the cooperation agreement will include research, private firm incubation, and specialization concentration. Since 2020 Luxamburg has hosted the annual "Luxembourg Space Resources Week", a conference in conjunction with the European Space Resources Innovation Centre, open to any member of the ESA to discuss the development of ISRU programs and their implementation. At the third meeting in 2023 LSA announced the "Lunar Space Resources Accelerator", a fund for private start-up companies to begin developing ISRU programs in Luxembourg. In April 2023, LSA and a private firm, OffWorld Europe, announced a partnership to develop an ISRU process to extract, process, store and use water collected from the surface of the

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

in the form of ice. The project, which is under the oversight of the ESA, will use OffWorld's technical expertise in robotics with a technology demonstration mission slated for launch to the moon in 2027 on

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

Starship HLS Starship HLS (Human Landing System) is a lunar lander variant of the Starship spacecraft that is slated to transfer astronauts from a lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon and back. It is being designed and built by SpaceX under the Human Lan ...

Cellular services

Luxembourg subsidizes the use of Luxembourger companies to act as

mission control center A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages spaceflight, space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the gr ...

s for various European cellular services and satellites, developing controls for large satellite constellations in partnership with the LSA and ESA. In 2022 the LSA funded the MACSAT mission, a

technology demonstration A technology demonstration (or tech demo), also known as demonstrator model, is a prototype, rough example or otherwise incomplete version of a conceivable product or future system, put together as proof of concept with the primary purpose of show ...

satellite launched on board a

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and ...

rideshare designed, produced, and run by a private firm, OQ Technology, to demonstrate global satellite 5G.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2018 establishments Science and technology in Luxembourg Space program of Luxembourg Government agencies of Luxembourg Space agencies