What a horrific day yesterday. I am happy to say that we are all OK and that so far I have not heard of anyone we know being caught up in either of the two attacks. I was at home most of the day “in my office”. Like everyone we think of how we are not caught in the atrocities and of those who were. We had been at the airport on Sunday and could have been there yesterday. Ariane who would often be passing through Maelbeek at about the time of the explosion was safely in France; she seems to have sensed the danger and decided to stay there this week as I was due to be away.
We were due to leave on Sunday but our flight was cancelled at the very last minute (we were waiting to walk to the aircraft) due to the air traffic strikes in France. I had vainly searched for other flights for Tuesday. I could have had one on Monday but the strike was due to continue. There were no seats left at a reasonable price so we abandoned our plans for a week away.
We learned about the first bombs just as we left the house at 8am for our normal morning walk (with the dog). At the newsagents where we pause each morning to chat with Alain, he had the radio on asking if we had heard. Whilst we sat in the cafe, I searched for news on my phone. Once home we switched on the television for more news to see the first pictures emerging of smoke coming from Maelbeek station on Rue de la Loi. More rumours were coming of other explosions – happily they were false.
We sat watching the news emerge; it was difficult to work. Messages started to arrive asking if we were OK. We talked about the attacks and the reason why Belgium seems to be implicated. We exchanged with friends and family anxious for news. We noted that just one week previously, the hunt for the terrorists had led to the stand-off and shootings just down the road from our house. We talked about the airport and metro which we know so well and pass through so often.
Then the first picture of the metro wagon were shown and this was the moment for me when the full horror became clear. Up to then we had seen people injured, being carried on stretchers, we had heard witnesses talk of their experience, but no real indications of the extent of the explosions. The damage to the train made it clear; torn apart by the blast it would have been full at that time
Does it change much? Of course. I fear for our freedom, for Europe and very much for Belgium. Will it change what we do? Not at all. No doubt we shall reflect on the attacks and the danger next time we take the metro or pass through the airport. But I think everyone who takes a plane regularly thinks of the possibilities whilst rationalising that the risks of “it” happening to us personally is very small; infinitesimally small. So life goes on – or at least for most of us – for our thoughts like everyone in Brussels at the moment go to the family, friends and networks of colleagues of those who were wounded or killed at 8h07 or 9h11 yesterday morning 22nd March 2016.
On Tuesday, Monica and I paid a visit to Eumetsat at their invitation. It was a good opportunity to exchange on latest activities, to understand the Eumetsat plans and position regarding Sentinel data and to brief them on and discuss our plans for the Marketplace Alliance.
We learned that Eumetsat now has committed observation missions right through to 2040. This includes Jason which is now a confirmed mission to which Eumetsat contributes. Companies may have access to Eumetsat products through Eumetcast.
Eumetsat is looking at the evolution of many of its operations and plans a series of pathfinder projects. These are not yet public and will be decided by their council next June. They will include looking at data access technology, cloud services and exploitation platforms for higher level information services.
Eumetsat was very interested to learn about the EARSC initiative to create a Marketplace and expressed strong interest as a potential data supplier. The technical solution is also of interest relating to the pathfinder studies to be confirmed in June. We agreed to exchange further over the coming months and EARSC looks to include Eumetsat views in our study on the Marketplace as part of the stakeholder analysis.
As we prepare to support companies to exploit the anticipated opening of Copernicus and Sentinel data and information, Eumetsat has an important role to play as operators of 3 of the Sentinel missions. We anticipate developing closer links and to see how the meteorological data can become part of the Marketplace which we plan to see developed.
Last week, I was invited to present at the Polish Space Sector Forum in Warsaw. The invitation had been initiated by one of the EARSC members (Geosystems Poland) and I was very happy to accept and to present our ideas linked to the creation of the Marketplace Alliance. It was well attended with some 150 people present and most if not all the member companies of the Polish Space Industry Association exhibited.
I was struck by the dynamism of the sector and their ambition to play a role in the downstream business. This contrasted with the main presentations which were all about creating a “space programme” and developing a Polish satellite. If the efforts are successful, I hope that there is enough room to support downstream efforts as well and this is not crowded out by the space manufacturing interests.
Many of the companies spoke with me about the Marketplace Alliance and how it is clearly industry led. There is a strong feeling of companies facing competition from institutes and other public bodies and that the academic view is given too much weight. There was much appreciation of our message about clarifying the roles of the public and private sectors and that this could be conveyed to the Polish decision makers. I was happy to oblige during my presentation and welcomed the opportunity to hear first-hand from the decision makers regarding their ambitions for the space sector; just a plea to remember to take adequate care of the downstream services part!