The Valencian aerospace sector aims for the stars

Just three years ago, just seven aerospace companies from the Valencian Community formed Espai Aero CV, a cluster to strengthen their coordination, enhance their capabilities, and increase their national and international visibility in a context of continued expansion in the sector, in which the Elx-based company PLD Space is a leader.

There are now 25 entities, ranging from companies to technology centers and universities, that make up this space. "The small, big players will drive the sector; PLD Space will become the first private European launcher and will need an entire industry dedicated to supplying it, so they will grow, and so will the rest," notes Manuel Muñoz, CEO of Fentiss and treasurer of the board of directors of Espai Aero CV.

In 2023, a total of 90 companies linked to the aerospace sector operated in the Valencian Community.

The launch of PLD Space is a major achievement for the sector in the Valencian Community, as the developer of reusable rockets for providing access to orbital and suborbital satellites plans to launch the MIURA 5, a medium-sized reusable launcher capable of covering the European institutional payload segment, in 2026.

Attending this moment together, as part of a cluster, is key for the sector, explains Muñoz, who details how in the Valencian Community there has already been "a sufficiently important group of companies dedicated to the space sector for many years, which were organized, but although they interacted with major outside players, they did not interact with each other. Since the entity's existence, we have seen that it is possible for them to begin to contribute to each other, and above all, small startups, independent agents, and cross-cutting entities such as technology centers, which are active in the sector, have emerged. The only thing is that we didn't know we were all here," he reflects.

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Small startups, independent agents, and cross-sector entities have emerged, all active in the sector. The only thing is, we didn't know we were all here." Manuel Muñoz, CEO of Fentiss and treasurer of Espai Aero CV

The sector is working on a future strategic plan "to drive the industry forward," as Pepe Nieto, president of Espai Aero CV, emphasizes. The cluster recently held the 2nd INNOEspai Conference with the support of the Regional Ministry of Innovation, Industry, Trade, and Tourism. The cluster believes the aerospace industry represents a "unique opportunity" to strengthen the Valencian industrial fabric and advance a production model based on knowledge, research, and public-private collaboration.

Although "incipient," as Minister Marián Cano acknowledged, the sector already had a total of 90 aerospace-related companies in the Valencian Community in 2023. Of these, 34 carried out activities directly related to air and space transport; 17 were dedicated to passenger transport; 11 focused on aircraft repair and maintenance; and 9 specialized in complementary technical tasks. Overall, the sector generated a turnover of €735.4 million in 2023 and employed 1,680 people.

The latest data indicate that 34 were involved in activities related to air and space transport.

New companies are contributing to the sector's growth, such as those operating at Castellón Airport, where its public company has just launched a new call for startups to join ESA-BIC Valencia Region, the European Space Agency's first business incubator in the Valencian Community. The selected companies will join the four selected in the first edition: Arkadia Space, Nax Solutions, ODOS Technologies, and Nerva Technologies. The program includes at least three editions and the incubation of a total of 12 startup projects.

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Another example of the lines of work already being developed by the sector in the Valencian Community is the fact that up to 46 students from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) dedicated to the design, manufacture, and launch of sounding rockets—part of the Faraday Rockety UPV group—will launch a rocket the day after tomorrow at the Atlas Flight Center facilities belonging to the CATEC (Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies) Technology Center in Villacarrillo (Jaén). Their goal is ambitious, as they aim to make the UPV the first university in Europe to reach space and attempt to win the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC) in October, the continent's leading university aerospace engineering competition.