How Portugal is turning the Azores into Europe’s new space gateway

There was a time in history when Portugal leveraged its strategic geographical location, on the edge of the European landmass and facing the vast expanses of the Atlantic Ocean, to become the launchpad for what came to be known as the Era of Exploration. 

Fast forward six centuries and Portugal is ready to play this geographical card once again, this time to participate in a new chapter of the space era. 

Inspired by the disruptive successes of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, companies and governments around the world are scrambling to find faster and cheaper ways to send payloads into orbit. 

It is in this context that the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, has gained a renewed strategic significance as an ideal location for European space launches. 

In August 2025, the Atlantic Spaceport Consortium (ASC) received a five-year operating license, the first to be issued in the country for a project of this type, authorizing the establishment of a launch center for space rockets on Santa Maria, the southernmost of the nine islands that make up the Azores. 

Atlantic Spaceport ConsortiumASC is a joint venture between two Portuguese private firms with complementary areas of expertise, OPTIMAL Structural Solutions, which designs and builds metallic and composite structures, and Ilex Space, a firm specializing in commercial space projects. 

Together these two firms will be opening up Santa Maria’s new spaceport to commercial operators with the approval of the Portuguese Space Agency. The Azores spaceport is a key element of the space strategy of Portugal, a country that aims to punch above its weight in the flourishing and fast-developing space economy. 

In addition to the pioneering launch facility in the Azores, Portugal plays an active role in a number of other space-related projects. For example, since 2020 it has hosted the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC), which gathers university teams from across Europe to compete in the design and development of rockets. 

A mid-ocean spaceport 

Speaking with AeroTime, Ricardo Conde, Director of the Portuguese Space Agency, explained that establishing a spaceport in the Azores was outlined in Portugal’s national space strategy back in 2018. The project, however, had to go through a rather slow regulatory approval process, which has only just begun to bear fruit.  

The potential for the island of Santa Maria to host space activities has long been considered. The island is home to one of the tracking stations belonging to the European Space Agency (ESA), of which the Portugues Space Agency is a member. The island is also expected to be the designated re-entry point for the future Space Rider (acronym for Space Reusable Integrated Demonstrator for Europe Return), ESA’s experimental reusable space vehicle, which is currently being developed by an Italian consortium.  

AeroTime also spoke with Bruno Carvalho, the Managing Director of the Atlantic Spaceport Consortium, who outlined the reasons Santa Maria was selected to host the company’s spaceport. In addition to being located in the territory of the European Union (EU), a non-trivial factor when it comes to a strategic industry like space, Santa Maria’s mid-Atlantic location offers several advantages for satellite launches. This includes optimal orbital trajectories and little overlap with major air and sea routes.  

This gives the Azores an advantage over other European spaceports, such as Andoya in northern Norway, and other spaceport projects that are currently either at the planning or development stage in northern Scotland, Cornwall, England, and on Germany’s North Sea coast. 

On this basis, a potentially strong competitor for the Azores facility could be a proposed spaceport that would be located on the island of El Hierro, the southernmost of Spain’s Canary Islands, although this project is still on the drawing board. 

What’s more, one of the potential users of this hypothetical facility, Spanish space startup PLD Space, recently opted for ESA’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, to launch its next generation of larger rockets. Until now, the company had launched its test rockets from Spain’s National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) launchpad on the coast of Huelva, in southwestern Spain. 

In this regard, Carvalho highlighted that Azores and Kourou operate in different market segments, with the Portuguese spaceport focusing on the booming launch market for small launchers, those able to carry payloads from 500kg up to 1,200kg, including low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites  

“This is complementary to Kourou which is focused on bigger rockets,” explained Carvalho. “We will support suborbital missions. Those are being used as technology test beds by the companies developing orbital vehicles.” In addition to the airspace clearance, the island of Santa Maria is also endowed with a 3,048-meter-long runway, which is capable of handling most widebody passenger and cargo aircraft, making it easily accessible from both Europe and North America, as well as a small port, which facilitates launch logistics on the ground. 

The Azores spaceport has already seen some experimental launches. In October 2024, it launched atmospheric rockets to a height of 7,000-meters (no space regulations were applicable, just some airspace and maritime coordination). This also allowed Atlantic Spaceport Consortium to test the logistics and other procedures, paving the way for the obtention of the spaceport license. 

What’s next for Atlantic Spaceport Consortium? 

Carvalho confirmed that the company is currently working with its first four launch vehicle providers. In July 2025, it signed the first contract with Polish rocket technology company SpaceForest, which will use the Azores as the launchpad for its PERUN suborbital rocket. 

“We are aiming for a first suborbital launch in May 2026,” he added “The contract with the vehicle operator has been signed. The next step is for their launch license to be issued, which the authorities have 90 days to do. We expect to meet the schedule.”  

“At the current location, with two launch pads we believe we can accommodate up to 20 launches per year. We are aiming for a baseline of 12 to 14,” he continued. “It is not exactly one a month. We may have some wind constraints during the winter months, but that is the baseline average we are aiming for.” The post How Portugal is turning the Azores into Europe’s new space gateway appeared first on AeroTime.

Go to Source