Chiara Manfletti is the new President of the Portuguese Space Agency

Chiara Manfletti was today appointed as the first President of the Portuguese Space Agency (Portugal Space), with Luís Santos as her vice president. The appointments were made during the agency's first General Assembly, which met today (Friday, March 22) at the agency's premises in the Palácio das Laranjeiras in Lisbon, attended by the four founding members, namely the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the National Innovation Agency (ANI), the Directorate-General for National Defense Resources (DGRDN), and the Autonomous Region of the Azores through the RAEGE Açores Association – Atlantic Network of Geodynamic and Space Stations. Minister Manuel Heitor participated at the end of the meeting, discussing with the agency's founders the terms of the agreements made with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the Portuguese space agency to perform the functions of an "ESA hub" in terms of "dual oversight" between Portugal and the ESA.

Chiara Manfletti has dual Italian and German nationality. She graduated in aeronautical engineering from Imperial College London (2001), has a master's degree in space studies from the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg (2002), and a PhD from the German University of Aachen (2009). She also has a degree in History from the Open University in the United Kingdom (2003). She worked for the French company SNECMA and the German space agency DLR, before joining the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2016, where she has been an advisor to the Director General at the agency's headquarters in Paris for the last few years.

Chiara Manfletti is the third woman to head a space agency worldwide, after Pascale Ehrenfreund, who was president of the German space agency (DLR) between 2015 and 2017, and Megan Clark, who was recently appointed president of the Australian space agency in 2018, when it was created last year.

Luís Santos has a degree in Electrical Engineering from IST and was previously the Coordinator of the Azores Space Mission Structure, now part of the Portuguese space agency.

The 1st General Assembly of the Portuguese Space Agency (Portugal Space) on Friday, March 22, took place after the Deed of Incorporation of the Portuguese Space Agency on Monday, March 17, in Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, in the presence of Minister Manuel Heitor and the President of the Regional Government of the Azores, Vasco Cordeiro, and the respective founding members of Portugal Space. The creation of the Portuguese Space Agency was approved on March 7 by the Council of Ministers and is the result of a partnership between the Government of Portugal and the Regional Government of the Azores, with the collaboration of the ESA.

The national agency "Portugal Space" is responsible for promoting and implementing the "Portugal Space 2030" Strategy and coordinating the management of various national programs related to space, encouraging investment, the creation of skilled jobs, and the provision of services related to space science and technology in close coordination with the European Space Agency and the development process of the Atlantic International Research Center (AIR Center). It also aims to boost the European space landscape through international cooperation, particularly at the level of ESA and other European space agencies. It is also responsible for implementing and promoting the AZORES International Satellite Launch Programme (AZORES ISLP), in partnership with the ESA.

Portugal Space is headquartered on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores and has facilities in Lisbon, at the Palácio das Laranjeiras. Its goal is to stimulate the space sector in Portugal, creating conditions for the development of national capacity and skills in the field of the space industry, particularly the new space industries ("New Space Industries"), but also scientific research, innovation, education, and scientific culture as it relates to space.