This year’s Macedonia2025 Summit is exploring exciting and current topics such as green technologies, renewable energies and smart cities, but it doesn’t stop just there. We have the privilege to present a panel dedicated to space exploration, as presented by Mario Butkovic, who is Head of the Near-Earth Services Section of the European Space Agency in Germany.

Mario is going to deliver a keynote presentation about the vision of the ESA and some of the most exciting missions in space exploration. There is internationally a renewed interest for space exploration thanks to entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Steve Bezos, whose companies are making significant strides towards launching commercial flights into space.

It will be interesting to hear Mario discuss about the current reaches of the ESA’s technology, based on his expertise in telecommunications, networks and computer for satellite ground segments. These systems represent ground stations which are needed for controlling satellites and other space craft which are not in “deep space”, but rather, closer to the earth. It will be interesting to hear about the development and use of these technologies.

Mario will have a conversation with the panel’s chair, Vlaho Kostov, who is Panasonic’s Research and Development Executive for Central-East Europe and the Mediterranean, based in Germany.