In 2025, the 50th anniversary of the signature of the ESA Convention (30 May 1975) provided the opportunity to reflect not only on ESA’s past achievements but also on its future perspectives. With the development of the ESA 2040 Strategy and the preparation of CM25, two cornerstones have been set for shaping the 50th anniversary celebrations.
The central event was planned to take place in the afternoon of the second day of June Council, which is on 12 June 2025. In addition, associated events were planned to take place in the first half of 2025 up to the main event and will be thematically oriented.
At EPFL’s SwissTech Convention Center, an event focused on science, exploration and innovation. The event had the honor of having Guy Parmelin, Federal Councillor, address the audience with a brief opening. The General Director of ESA Josef Aschbacher talked about about ESA’s 2040 vision.
The full line-up of speakers:
Here is a recap of that day, including videos.
During that great event, I had the honor to moderate a roundtable with the following very distinguished guests:
- Renato Krpoun, Head of the Swiss Space Office and current Chair of the ESA Council
- Thomas Zurbuchen, Professor at ETHZ, director of the ETH Zurich Space Inititiave
- Aude Pugin, CEO APCO Technologies
- Géraldine Naja, ESA Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness
- Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, President of EPFL
Here are some images of that roundtable:
To feed the discussion, I asked each panelist to come with one picture, realized if needed with AI, describing how they would see space exploration in 50 years from now. Here are their proposals:
Renato Krpoun:
Thomas Zurbuchen:
Aude Pugin:
Géraldine Naja:
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral:
