The Future of ESRIC as Part of Luxembourg’s New Space Campus

Since 2016, the space sector in the Grand Duchy has been growing rapidly, with about 75 companies and research institutions active in the space sector and employing nearly 1,200 people.

LUXEMBOURG (ESRIC PR) — During a press conference on August 3, 2022, the Minister of Economy, Franz Fayot, and the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Claude Meisch, presented the vision for the future Space Campus which will be dedicated exclusively to the space sector.

The main site of the Space Campus will be located in Kockelscheuer, in the ParcLuxite. The site will house the headquarters of the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) as well as activities directly related to space entrepreneurs and innovators. The new ground-breaking infrastructure, scheduled to be finalized by 2024 and operational in 2026, will be developed in accordance with best practices in environmental, urban mobility and human welfare.

The Space Campus will include a second site in Belval, which will regroup the Luxembourg space research activities and laboratories. The European Space Resources Innovation Center (ESRIC), today hosted in the LIST building, will relocate to the Belval site of the campus. These new premises will further foster the development of the center and will include key facilities (such as a Dirty Vacuum Thermal Chamber), positioning ESRIC as a reference in the space resources field. The Space Campus will be instrumental in facilitating collaborative initiatives between ESRIC and industrial or governmental actors.  

The Belval site will also host the space related activities of the Interdisciplinary Center for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg, as well as the Interdisciplinary Space Master.

“The Space Campus is in line with the national strategy of research and innovation aiming at an optimal coordination between government, public research and private sector for the benefit of the country,” says the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Claude Meisch. “The Belval site, dedicated to public research, is complementary to the Kockelscheuer one, aiming to form a public-private value chain. This chain extends from the creation of competences, with the Space Master of the University of Luxembourg, to long-term innovations such as the exploitation of space resources aimed at by ESRIC, while integrating all the companies active in the space sector”.

“In the long term, the campus has the ambition to become the center of gravity of the Luxembourg space ecosystem, ” declares the Minister of Economy Franz Fayot. “It will be the tangible expression of the investment of the country and the Ministry of Economy and will reinforce the visibility and attractiveness of the Grand Duchy on the national, European and international scene, amongst economic actors and the scientific community”.