International conference brings space specialists to Santa Maria
The Portuguese Space Agency is hosting the Atlantic Space Hub: Designing the Future of Space in Vila do Porto from 22 to 25 July, organised by the University of Pittsburgh, in the United States, and sponsored by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Otsuka. The gathering will bring astronauts from ESA, NASA and Turkey to the island.
Santa Maria is preparing to welcome more than 50 international specialists in space biomedicine, engineering and technology in July. Over four days at the Atlântida Cine, in Vila do Porto, the Atlantic Space Hub: Designing the Future of Space will debate the role of Santa Maria, and of the wider Azores archipelago, as a major Atlantic hub for space exploration and research. The event will conclude with a morning open to the public, during which attendees will have the chance to meet three astronauts face to face: Kate Rubins from the US, Matthias Maurer from Germany and Tuva Cihangir Atasever from Turkey.
The first day opens with seven service providers presenting their capabilities to researchers and space agencies. Among them are ATMOS Space Cargo, Space Forest, Space Forge and Orbital Paradigm, four companies already planning operations from Santa Maria, alongside VAST, Axiom Space and Voyager Space.
“One of the goals of this conference, which the Portuguese Space Agency is proud to host, is precisely to connect researchers with those able to provide services from Santa Maria. The space hub is closer than ever to becoming a reality, and we want to draw the sector’s different players, from anywhere in the world, to the island,” says Inês d’Ávila, programme manager for space safety and transport at the Agency.
Organised by the University of Pittsburgh and sponsored by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Otsuka, the programme was shaped by the Scientific Committee, chaired by Afshin Beheshti, Director of the Centre for Space Biomedicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and Rodrigo Almeida, a biologist at the European Space Agency.
Across four days, the programme moves from the Portuguese vision for Santa Maria’s space ecosystem to space biomedicine, the search for biosignatures beyond Earth, and the integration of commercial payloads, closing with a day open to the public dedicated to astronauts, including Kate Rubins (NASA), Matthias Maurer (ESA) and Turkish astronaut Tuva Cihangir Atasever. By bringing together researchers, service providers, space agencies and industry partners, the event will lay the ground for collaborative projects that expand Europe’s role in global space efforts.
On the second day, Cristóvão Sousa, Head of R&D at GIMM CARE, opens the session ahead of the space biomedicine theme, representing the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM), which has housed ESA’s biobank since 2025, the only site in Europe storing biological samples collected by the agency, both from spaceflight missions and from ground-based analogue experiments. A panel on the impact of spaceflight on human biology and genetics follows, bringing together specialists from Portugal, the United States and Malta, including Portuguese researcher Edson Oliveira, of the Centre for Aerospace Medicine Studies (CEMA/FMUL).
Ricardo Conde, President of the Portuguese Space Agency, underlines what hosting the event means: “Having NASA, ESA and astronauts such as Turkey’s Tuva Cihangir Atasever gathered in Santa Maria confirms the Azores’ place on the international space map. Opening this event to the community on the final day is also a way of inspiring young people to see space as a possible path.”
