Elodie Viau, Director of Telecommunications & Integrated Applications (D/TIA), and Head of ECSAT at the European Space Agency (ESA).
Our world is interconnected. Whether telecommunications, navigation, environmental protection or logistics, whether education, health, disaster prevention, or the financial markets: Not a single one of our complex systems, with which we regulate our economy, society, climate protection, transport, and our international security, can do without high-speed digital networks. And none of them can function without the technologies and platforms in space. Space is key to our interconnected world. Satellites, constellations, and space stations are not outposts but central components of our global communications.