Ibadan, 5 March 2024. – The Creative Destruction Lab Oxford (CDL-Oxford) is hosting a unique meeting featuring 30 promising space startups and Colonel Chris Hadfield, former commander of the International Space Station, to help put Europe at the forefront of space exploration. The event will hold from 6-8 March 2024 at the Saïd Business School. The unique meeting will consequently see CDL-Oxford bring together a global mentor community of astronauts, entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists.
A key part of the mentoring event will be to foster the rapid commercialization of space technologies at a time when the European Space Agency (ESA) is calling for investment in infrastructure to allow for the development of domestic European space launch capabilities. As a result, Mentors in attendance across the two-day event will include Colonel Chris Hadfield, Anousheh Ansari, Luca Rossettini (CEO and founder at D-Orbit and expert at the Space Advisory Group of the European Commission), and Theresa Condor (Space Entrepreneur and COO of Spire Global Inc.).
CDL-Oxford’s Director, Sarah Barratt Ball, said, “Two-thirds of our entire MBA cohort apply every year to be part of the program, even though they get no academic credit for being part of CDL. They realize that participating in the Creative Destruction Lab program and engaging in consulting projects related to business narrative with startup ventures can only enrich their entrepreneurial skill set and experience.”
CDL’s space program aims to aid the rapid commercialization of space technologies. As a result, startups work alongside mentors to sharpen objectives, raise capital, build networks and engage with experts working on the frontiers of space research. To date, 58 companies have graduated from CDL and continue to scale within the space industry, including Pixxel, Benchmark Space Systems and Lumi Space.
