"We're proud to be launching the Safeplace project," said Laurent Jaffart, ESA Director of Connectivity and Secure Communications. "This project showcases Europe’s technological and industrial capabilities to benefit European citizens. By improving our ability to respond to challenges ranging from natural disasters to humanitarian crises, we're taking a significant step towards a safer and more resilient Europe." 

“Crises and emergencies are, by their very nature, unexpected,” said Simonetta Cheli, ESA Director of Earth Observation.  “However, through developments such as Safeplace, we can ensure that satellite-based situation awareness, communications and location capabilities contribute effectively and reliably in enabling first responders to maximise the impact of their response.” 

“There is an increasing need to deliver detailed, accurate and need-specific information to first responders as fast as possible when a crisis occurs, as we have seen in Europe in recent years when, for example, increasing numbers of severe flooding and fire events have occurred, causing loss of life,” said Arne Matthyssen, Starion Chief Commercial and Technology Officer. “Satellites can provide complementary and necessary data, and our advanced data engineering and AI capabilities will allow us to rapidly convert this data to actionable information.” 

Discover more about ESA’s Civil Security from Space programme.