Interview

Thai New Space startup mu Space is making big waves in Thailand with its efforts to bridge the digital divide in rural Thailand, and ultimately, in other parts of Southeast Asia, and with its long-term plans to bring commercial space travel to Thailand and the wider region. mu Space brings a vibrant New Space startup dynamic to Thailand, as the country embarks on its Thailand 4.0economic modernisation initiative where mu Space finds itself very much at the forefront. SpaceWatch.Globalhas been covering mu Space’s progress for months, and we managed to talk with its founder and Chief Executive Officer James Yenbamroong to hear his thoughts about the progress of mu Space so far, and its future plans.

Precious Payload, the brain child of Russian entrepreneurs Andrei Rebrov and Andrey Maskimov, is aiming to transform the way in which small satellite operators secure their launches. As we heard at Satellite 2018 this year, small satellites are being hit by a launch bottleneck and are mostly reduced to piggybacking on larger satellite launches and settling for what they can get. This can impact negatively on schedules and revenues.

In Spring 2017 Glavkosmos, a leading company representing the interests of the Russian space industry on the international market, announced the creation of an operator of commercial launches called Glavkosmos Launch Services, which will utilize the Soyuz-2 rocket launched from Russian-based cosmodromes. We talked to Alexander Serkin, CEO of the new company, about the reasons behind the establishing of the company and what goals it pursues on the international launch market.

Last week, SpaceWatch Global attended the Satellite 2018 event held in Washington, D.C. and one of the features of the event that also ran last year, was ‘Startup Space’, a competition that sees 20 Newspace new entrants, given 5 minutes to pitch their business to a panel of highly accomplished space professionals, investors, thought leaders, and fellow entrepreneurs. During the day-long event, I came across Equatorial Space Industries, which is developing the Volans launcher, capable of delivering 35-70Kg of payload for under $1m. This team of 15, based in Singapore, are looking to change the economics of getting small satellites to space and to providing much-needed dedicated launches to a small satellite market in need.

A pioneer of Space Archaeology, Lisa Westwood’s story is an inspiring one. Author of two books on humanity’s heritage in space, Westwood is a professional archaeologist and Cultural Resources Manager for ECORP Consulting and also a member of the Department of Anthropology at California State University-Chico and Butte College. Here, …

Dr. Beth O’Leary is a foremost expert and pioneer of space archaeology and has been involved in the development of the science for the last 20 years. Inspired by a question raised by a grad student, O’Leary has tirelessly worked to promote the protection of humanity’s heritage sites in space. Here, she speaks …

The Google Lunar XPrize (GLXP) may have ended, but the teams that have invested nearly a decade into their lunar dreams have vowed to continue to reach their goals. TeamIndus had made huge progress towards the launch deadline of 31 March, 2018, and inspired the people of India and beyond …

Nanosatellite manufacturer GomSpace is going from strength to strength, fuelled by the innovative small satellite sector and an increased demand for small satellites that can perform a wider range of missions than ever before. In October 2016, GomSpace acquired nanosatellite propulsion specialist, NanoSpace, after establishing a partnership on several customer …

When it comes to focusing on the next generation of space pioneers, the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) is making great progress. The organisation, which is based in Vienna, works tirelessly to promote space as a career to young people all over the world and from different backgrounds and countries …

Since a very young age, Michaela Musilova dreamt of exploring space and eventually becoming an astrobiologist to find the answers to the ultimate question:  is there life out there? Today, as Chair of the Slovak Organisation for Space Activities, Musilova has tirelessly pursued her dream and, from the 8-year old …