Space race: Why Portugal is reaching for the stars

Imagine rockets being launched from the Azores, an archipelago out in the Atlantic Ocean, carrying Portuguese-built satellites into space — and then picture reusable space capsules returning to base.

While this may sound like a rather futuristic scenario, elements of it could soon become reality. Portugal , after all, is working hard to become a spacefaring nation, with the help of its many highly skilled engineers and EU cooperation.

"Portugal has modernized considerably over the past 20 years," Portuguese Space Agency President Ricardo Conde tells DW. "Our universities produce outstanding engineers. We have created human capital that we can build on."

Conde, whose agency was founded in 2019, says about 80 different companies now employ some 2,000 highly qualified workers across Portugal's space industry. It generated a turnover of €200 million ($232.5 million) last year, according to Conde, with even greater productivity expected this year.

This is "because we hold another trump card: the Azores," Conde says.

Indeed, Portugal is presently building a spaceport on the sleepy Azores island of Santa Maria.

"This will be a big deal," Ivo Vieira of space industry group AED Cluster Portugal tells DW. "The European Space Rider spaceplane is even slated to land there in 2028."

It will float down on huge parachutes and land right beside the old runway, which was once built by the Americans during World War II and is now barely ever used. Vieira says a rocket launch is planned for 2030, which will send "a South Korean satellite into orbit."