Greece Is Serious About Joining the Space Race.Nikos Pappas, Greece\u2019s Minister of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media, is serious about going into space.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreece is one of the few European countries that was lacking a space agency,\u201d Pappas said in an interview with Bloomberg at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. \u201cThe Greek space agency will coordinate public and private institutions in order to make best use of the country\u2019s capabilities in the sector of space and satellite applications.\u201d<\/p>\n
The launch of the space agency is part of the Greek government\u2019s drive to stem the country\u2019s brain drain. Since the start of the crisis in 2008, Greece\u2019s Central Bank estimates around 427,000 educated Greeks have left the country. The new agency will \u201ccreate numerous new jobs, offering opportunities to Greek scientists to either stay or come back to the country,\u201d said Pappas.<\/p>\n
Previously an economic researcher in Strathclyde, Scotland, Pappas joined the Greek government in January 2015, and became telecoms minister in November. In January, he presented a draft bill for the creation of National Center for Space Applications.<\/p>\n
The Greek government will not own any satellites. Hellas Sat 3, built by U.K. firm Inmarsat Plc. and Greece\u2019s Hellas Sat Consortium Ltd., is currently under construction in Cannes, France, and is set to be put into orbit from French Guiana on June 28.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn early summer, the launching of Hellas Sat 3, the new satellite that will take its place on the Greek orbital position, will significantly broaden the Greek capacity to host satellite applications, both for the public and the private sector,\u201d said Pappas.<\/p>\n
Greece\u2019s main opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Pappas is from \u201canother planet,\u201d addressing the minister during a parliamentary debate on Feb. 1. Socialist Pasok party posted to Twitter a picture of Pappas, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos in a spaceship commenting on the government\u2019s decision to set up the service.<\/p>\n
\u0399t is not the first time Greece has attempted to conquer space in the era of the bailouts. In 2013, the Defense Minister of Antonis Samaras\u2019s government, Fofi Gennimata, had announced the government\u2019s intention to set up a space missile launch base in Kalamata, southern Greece.<\/p>\n
However, Pappas is also keen to promote startups as well as space adventures. The Greek government has spent around 400,000 euros ($421,600) on its presence at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a flagship telecommunication conference that took place this week.<\/p>\n
Examples include Viva, an app that lets users bypass Greece\u2019s capital controls, and the first Greek company to be granted an Electronic Money Institution license by the European Central Bank. Another is Upstream, a mobile commerce platform, which received 25 million euros in financing by the European Investment Bank in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cMobile technology exports are bigger than olive oil,\u201d said Yiannis Kotsis-Giannarakis, general manager of the Hellenic Association of Mobile Application Companies.<\/p>\n
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