Christine Leurquin

Christine Leurquin has spent more than four decades turning space from a distant frontier into a platform for real-world impact. She began at the European Commission as a technical expert shaping early space policy, then spent 20 years at SES in senior leadership roles, driving global partnerships, complex negotiations, and Europe’s satellite telecommunications strategy. She was central to initiatives like Galileo Operations, GOVSATCOM, Iris2, and EGNOS, and led projects from delivering emergency satellite communications in Piemonte during Covid-19 to launching a TV channel in Ghana to combat Ebola misinformation. Today, as Senior Director of European and Public Affairs at Aldoria, she continues to connect technology with human needs, ensuring space remains a force for progress on Earth.

Christine Leurquin’s career blends technical expertise, entrepreneurial vision, and political insight. At SES, she contributed to multimillion-euro deals, built global markets across Africa, Asia, and North America, and worked with bodies like the UN, ITU, and UNOOSA. She founded the Global Satellite Operators Association (GSOA) to unify industry voices and later launched MiThraSpace, advising institutions on space governance and strategy. Her move to Aldoria is a natural step, aligning with her long-standing commitment to sustainable space governance and European autonomy.

Christine Leurquin sees the space and satellite sector as dynamic and essential, no longer niche but central to global digital, economic, and security infrastructure. What excites her is the intersection of technology, geopolitics, and sustainability, where every challenge is a complex puzzle shaping the future. For her, the true reward lies in the passionate people driving the field and in knowing that satellites underpin life on Earth, from communication and navigation to disaster response, making each mission a step toward resilience and progress.

At Aldoria, Christine Leurquin’s vision takes shape through advanced SSA and predictive analytics that help operators avoid collisions, optimize maneuvers, and make smarter decisions in an increasingly crowded orbit. With over 50,000 spacecraft expected in the coming decade, Aldoria goes beyond tracking to deliver actionable insights that safeguard assets and preserve orbital integrity. For her, the company is not just providing tools but building the infrastructure for a sustainable space future.

Yet technology alone cannot safeguard the orbital domain. Policy and regulation are equally critical, and Aldoria is deeply engaged in bridging the gap between technological realities and institutional frameworks. The EU Space Act, the first comprehensive legislative initiative to define Europe’s approach to space governance, is a cornerstone of this effort. It sets out clearer norms for SSA, Space Domain Awareness (SDA), cybersecurity, and sustainability, aligning member states and industry around a shared vision. But, as Leurquin notes, the work cannot stop there. Europe still suffers from regulatory fragmentation, with differing licensing procedures and administrative burdens slowing down innovation and scaling.

At Aldoria, Leurquin serves as a bridge between orbital safety and policy, shaping white papers, consultations, and contributing in working groups with the European Commission and ESA to ensure regulation matches operational needs. She also helps design the financial frameworks via Horizon Europe, the EU Space Programme, EDF, and EIC needed for European space autonomy. Leurquin stresses that without greater investment, Europe’s ambitions in SSA/SDA risk falling short.

Christine Leurquin underscores that sustainable space management depends on international cooperation, as no single actor can safeguard the orbital domain alone. Shared standards, interoperable systems, and coordinated responses are vital to both safety and innovation. Through her past work with UNOOSA, ITU, and GSOA, she has seen that real progress comes when technical, diplomatic, and operational efforts align. At Aldoria, this approach translates into transparent data and predictive analytics, offering a common language for orbital safety. For Europe, with its diverse players, the chance to lead through collaboration is especially strong. 

But cooperation must extend beyond governments to include the public. Public awareness and education, Leurquin argues, are foundational to building lasting support for space sustainability. Citizens rely daily on satellite-enabled services but remain largely unaware of their importance. By demystifying these technologies and making orbital safety part of mainstream discourse, momentum for policy and funding can grow. Education bridges the gap between technical excellence and democratic legitimacy, turning space sustainability into a shared societal value.

Christine Leurquin believes Europe stands at a turning point in space innovation. To stay competitive, it must adopt agile regulations, back SMEs and scale-ups, and foster public-private partnerships that balance commerce with sovereignty and security. With sustainability now central to competitiveness, she sees Aldoria as a model integrating responsible practices into space traffic management and aligning with evolving European and global standards.

The risks of failing to act are severe. Without proper regulation and space traffic management, the threat of cascading collisions and geopolitical instability looms large. Low Earth orbit could become congested and unusable, undermining not only technological progress but also the global security and economic systems that depend on space. For Leurquin, the imperative is clear: Europe must move decisively, matching ambition with coherent regulation, adequate investment, and international cooperation. Only then can space remain a safe, secure, and sustainable domain for generations to come.