IAC 2018: Stronger Role of SME in Value Chain without Alternative

October 2018

At the occasion of the Public Day at the world´s largest space congress IAC this year in Bremen ESA invited the heads of space industry from Europe, America and South Adrica to discuss the crucial question that will probably dominate the ESA Ministerial Council in 2019: Which role and participation need SME to take in the value chain, and how can respective goals be reached?

ESA, represented by administration director Eric Morel de Westgaver, addressed specifically tendencies in new space formats towards vertical integration schemes of production under one roof. This stands in sharp contrast to all positions taken by ESA-procurement policies designed to strengthen the solid role of SME.

Dr. Ernst K. Pfeiffer, CEO of HPS GmbH and spokesman of the large central German SME association emphazised the importance of ESA´s latest moves towards strengthening the role of SME in the value chain and invited the CEOs of present LSI, like Nicolas Chamussy, Head of Space at Airbus Group, Marco Fuchs, CEO of OHB, and Lockheed-Vicepresident Lisa Callahan to direct discussions about the promotion of SME-roles in space production. A solid and balanced industrial space ecosystem, according to Pfeiffer, is not an end in itself. It is a fundamental pillar to strengthen competitiveness through flexibility, innovation power and speed also for the LSI. And, as for institutional customers, promoting SME means nothing but cultivating a maximum level of competitiveness in large space projects, since decisive competition takes place exactly and only on the level of SME.

Most participants agreed that also new space is not going to change that elemental condition. Quite the contrary: the stronger tendencies towards commercialization grow, the higher the need for a competitive and clearly identifiable SME-landscape in space. Promoting this is consequently one of the major policy lines of ESA-procurement and as such without any alternative.