Interview

Thai New Space entrepreneur James Yenbamroong, the founder and CEO of mu Space, is emerging as perhaps the preeminent New Space advocate, investor, and role model in Southeast Asia. He has articulated an exciting and bold space vision, is building a solid and cutting edge venture in the form of mu Space, and is now ready to invest in and mentor other budding entrepreneurs in the region with his recent U.S.$100 million venture unit announcement. SpaceWatch.Global sat down with James to talk more about his investment plans and ambitions.

NASA’s Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway is set to be a staging post in space – a science lab, communications hub, and holding area for robots and rovers and a jumping off point for future deep space transportation.

Firefly is well and truly ignited again. A new formation of the company with solid investors behind it is now paving the way for what has the potential to be a very successful business. International asset management firm, Noosphere Ventures, as lead investor, is set to take Firefly to the next level and beyond with an evolutionary strategy and approach that sees the development two launch vehicles to satisfy the full breadth of the dedicated small satellite launch market and for broader in-space applications as well.

SpaceWatch.Global last spoke to Gernot Groemer, Founder and Administrative Director of the Austrian Space Forum last year when we covered the Forum’s work and activities on the Mars Analogue missions.

Alexander Shaenko is a Moscow-based engineer and space enthusiast, the driving force behind the Mayak cubesat developed by space enthusiasts that was launched in 2017. He is currently working on a new space-related project. We talked to him about his past and present activities, his views on the current situation in the Russian space sector, ways to engage young people in space projects and much more.

Olga Nikolaevna Gershenzon is the deputy director general of the engineering company LoReTT, as well as a co-founder of the SCANEX holding. She has more than 25 years of experience in the field of practical application of remote sensing in various branches of economy.

UK-based Effective Space is set to launch its first Space Drone spacecraft in 2020 which will introduce life extension services to satellite operators. The company has received very encouraging feedback on its plans and other potential lines of business such as accommodating new constellations in LEO.

Lunar Orbital Platform – Gateway (LOP-G) is a future international lunar orbiting outpost, planned to be built in the 2020s. We talked about the development of the project, its tasks and goals as well as about Russia’s participation with Oleg Valerievich Kotov, pilot-cosmonaut of the Russian Federation, recipient of the Hero of the Russian Federation medal, veteran of three space missions, currently Deputy Director for Science at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The UK space sector is truly on the up. Years of hard work preparing the ground are finally paying off. With recent announcements promising long awaited spaceports, and the rapid growth and leadership of the UK in the smallsat industry, iconic Goonhilly Teleport is looking forward to a glittering future.

We talked about the development of the project, its tasks and goals as well as about Russia’s participation with Oleg Valerievich Kotov, pilot-cosmonaut of the Russian Federation, recipient of the Hero of the Russian Federation medal, veteran of three space missions, currently Deputy Director for Science at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences.