Pampilhosa da Serra Space Observatory (PASO) recently welcomed a delegation from the European Space Agency (ESA), led by Niels Eldering, Head of ESA Entrepreneurship & Business Incubation Services, as part of the collaboration between the Pampilhosa Business Center (PBC) and the ESA BIC Centre programme.
The visit provided an opportunity to showcase the work carried out by the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) and the Portuguese Ministry of National Defence (MoD) in the design, development and operation of PASO, a unique national scientific and technological infrastructure dedicated to space observation, radio astronomy, radar, and advanced sensing technologies.
During the visit, the IT team presented the observatory’s capabilities, including radio astronomy facilities, electro-optical sensors, experimental radar systems, and advanced data acquisition and sensor fusion platforms supporting research, technology development, advanced training, and demonstration activities in Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) and Space Situational Awareness (SSA).
Built upon more than fifteen years of continuous scientific commitment by the IT in Pampilhosa da Serra, PASO has evolved from an initiative centred on one of Europe’s finest dark-sky locations into a multidisciplinary research infrastructure combining communications, radar, radio astronomy, sensing technologies and artificial intelligence. Today, it serves as a national testbed for innovation in both civil and dual-use space applications.
The visit also brought together representatives from the Portuguese Space Agency (Portugal Space), the Pedro Nunes Institute (IPN), the Municipality of Pampilhosa da Serra, and the Portuguese Ministry of National Defence, highlighting the strong collaboration between academia, government, industry and international organisations in building Portugal’s growing space ecosystem.
For IT, the visit represents important recognition of the outstanding work carried out by its multidisciplinary team of researchers, engineers and technical specialists, whose expertise has been instrumental in establishing PASO as a national reference infrastructure for research, innovation and technology validation in the fields of space, radar, communications and advanced sensing.
Photos: CM Pampilhosa da Serra
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