Balearic president Marga Prohens at the presentation.

Balearic president Marga Prohens at the presentation. | EFE

Humphrey CarterPalma26/02/2025 13:10Updated at 14:34
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The first satellite in the history of the Balearics, manufactured by the British-based company Open Cosmos, will be called ‘Posidònia’ and is scheduled to be launched into orbit in just under a year’s time, in February 2026. The president of the Balearic government, Marga Prohens, attended the presentation of the satellite on Wednesday which is when its name was revealed.

It will be launched from Cape Canaveral, the historic and mythical rocket launch site in Florida (United States). The launch itself will be carried out by the private US company SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, and the rocket will carry other satellites as well as the Balearic one.

The name was selected with the collaboration and votes of students from various schools and colleges in the Balearics, and the countdown to its launch has begun. The project, which has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of the regional administration, the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and private initiative, seeks to collect data on climate change and the rise in Mediterranean sea levels.

“This is in line with our intention to make political decisions based on scientific data that is rigorous and as proven as possible,” Prohens said. The president also highlighted the initiative as an opportunity to make progress on a “key issue” for the government, to turn the Balearics “into a centre of innovation. To be known in Spain and throughout the world not only for economic and tourism leadership, which is indisputable, but also for innovation, research, science and transparency of knowledge,” she said.

The founder of Open Cosmos, Rafael Jordà, and one of the company’s engineers, Tomeu Massuti, explained some of the technical aspects of ‘Posidònia’. It will weigh about 80 kilos, reach a height of between 500 and 600 kilometres and have a useful life of more than three years. The satellite’s main instrument will be a set of mirrors and lenses that will allow high-resolution photographs to be taken from a distance of between 500 and 600 kilometres.

“It would be like taking a photo of Madrid from the Balearics and being able to distinguish how many doors or windows a building has,” Massuti said. The name was selected from suggestions put forward by students from 50 schools in the Balearics, which were put to a vote. It will finally be called ‘Posidònia’, but other suggestions included ‘SobraSAT’, ‘Sibila’ and ‘Ramon Llull’ . At the end of the presentation, Prohens and Jordà began the official countdown to the launch of ‘Posidònia’, which is expected to take place in 357 days.