Valladolid, Mar 14 (EFE).- Talent at the service of environmental conservation, the fight against climate change and the rational use of natural resources has distinguished the Princess of Girona Foundation with the 2023 Business Award, awarded and announced that Tuesday in Valladolid.
Rafael Jordá, Business Award 2023
The young businessman Rafael Jordá, founder of the Open Cosmos company, has won the 2023 Business Award, one of the five types of awards that the Princess of Girona Foundation convenes annually and which will be presented this coming summer.
The jury, meeting in Valladolid as part of the second of the five stops on the 2023 Talent Tour, promoted by the Princess of Girona Foundation, has taken into account the “democratization” of access to space through the launch of low-orbit satellites.
“I feel very flattered and I want to share with all of you the only three things I have done in my life: learn from my parents, my friends, teachers and people I have worked with”, as well as “undertake, lose the fear of start”, reflected the winner after the award decision was made public.
It has been during the celebration of a conference (“Challenges and opportunities for young talent”) which has been attended by a thousand students from schools in Valladolid and which has had the presence of Queen Letizia; the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, José Luis Escrivá; and the President of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco.
The third reflection that the award-winner has shared has been the need to give back to society “everything it is giving me” and address “the energy, climate and natural resource use challenges that we are having”.
Satellites against climate change
All of this has also been taken into account by the jury in the figure of the young businessman Rafael Jordá, who at the age of 26 created the Open Cosmos company to launch low-orbit satellites into space and, therefore, more viable from the point of view of from an economic point of view.
Open Cosmos has seventy employees in Spain and the United Kingdom, has successfully launched numerous satellites and obtained contracts worth more than 50 million euros.
It designs, manufactures and operates satellites that, due to their size and capacity, in addition to being economically viable, offer information about the Earth through sensors in corners of the planet, which it puts at the service of those who have to make decisions regarding climate change and the depletion of resources. natural.
Born in Barcelona, it was in the Balearic Islands where he studied in public centers that culminated with an average grade of 9.9 points in Baccalaureate and the highest grade within that autonomous community in the university entrance exams.
After enjoying several scholarships, he graduated as an aeronautical engineer at the Public University of Catalonia (UPC) where he led several projects for obtaining images of the Earth from stratospheric probes, as well as for the manufacture of supersonic rockets and their launch from the stratosphere. .
At the age of 22 he joined the space logistics company Zero 2 Infinity, at 24 he joined Airbus Defense & Space and at 26 he created his own company, Open Cosmos, where he has manufactured some of the most innovative satellites in Europe, they have confirmed. sources of the Princess of Girona Foundation.
Talent Tour 2023
The Business 2023 award is the second of the five categories of the Princess of Girona Foundation Awards, after the Social category, announced last February in Zaragoza during the first stage of the 2023 Talent Tour, and which went to Silvia Fernández, social educator and promoter of the Palliative Art Foundation.
In successive weeks the name of the winners in the three remaining modalities will be known according to the following stages of the Talent Tour: the Arts and Letters stage in Córdoba (April 13 to 19); that of Scientific Investigation in Lugo (May 2 to 7); and the International Prize in Girona (from June 5 to 9).
Before attending the ruling, Queen Letizia learned first-hand, with their respective authors, the four initiatives of the Purpose Generation Program, the program of the Princess of Girona Foundation dedicated to initiatives with a social impact, related in this case to health , culture, financial education, and health. EFE