A national centre using space data to monitor key processes will be built at Dobroslavtsi Airport, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said on Thursday.
“We will finally begin building what I have been talking about since 2020, a national centre for observation, coordination and management using data from space, so that the Bulgarian State can direct important processes in various socio-economic sectors,” Radev told journalists at the airport. The High-Tech Industrial Park and Space and Defence Development Centre Dobroslavtsi is planned for the site.
“A high-tech industrial park focused on space technology, the defence industry and future industries will be built,” Radev said. “The project will boost municipalities in the region,” Radev added.
“The runway will retain its function and will be repaired and extended. It will also remain a training base for the National Service for Protection,” Radev said.
“What is happening here captures the government’s economic policy: investment in the knowledge economy and high-tech manufacturing,” Radev said. He voiced hope that Bulgaria will go from being a country “that consumes technology” to one that creates it. The project’s success will depend less on the volume of investment or the number of jobs created than on its ability to develop and retain talented Bulgarians, Radev added.
“The project is very complex and large. We are trying to create Europe’s largest space research and development centre, together with a centre for defence and military systems development,” EnduroSat founder and CEO Raycho Raychev said.
“The first phase will last three years. We will fully restore the runway’s operational capacity, create a large green area and build the first part of the industrial park,” Raychev added.
Raychev said the company’s new generation of satellites has proved successful and is approaching the mass of a Boeing 737, requiring a large site such as Dobroslavtsi Airport. “Our ambition is to carry out the entire assembly, testing and qualification process for our latest satellites, for which we already have customers,” Raychev said.
The plan also includes a development and education centre. Bulgaria has a master’s programme in space engineering and technology, and the aim is to bring its graduates together on a single campus, Raychev noted.
Novi Iskar Borough Mayor Vladislav Vladimirov said delivering the project in the borough, particularly in the village of Dobroslavtsi, is a source of great pride. The airport had been abandoned for far too long, while the forthcoming investment will spur the borough’s development by creating new jobs and breathe new life into a site left to decay for years, Vladimirov added.
Asked whether the protocol on freezing the BOTAS contract would be made public, Radev said: “Contact the commercial companies. Only they have the right to publish it if they decide to do so.”
Bulgargaz and BOTAS signed the protocol on July 6 following talks between Radev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. During the 15-month suspension, Bulgargaz will pay only for transmission capacity it actually uses under improved commercial terms while the companies seek to renegotiate the agreement.
