Interview

S7 Space is the first Russian commercial company providing a full service on the launches of spacecraft with use of the Zenit launch vehicles.

CosmoCourse is a private Russian space company which develops its own reusable suborbital space complex for tourist spaceflight.

CosmoCourse is a private Russian space company which develops its own reusable suborbital space complex for tourist spaceflight.

Just recently, from May 30-31st, SpaceWatch Global’s Torsten Kriening attended a fascinating event in a fascinating part of the world – Finland. Helsinki is home to media, events, PR and consulting company, ArcticStartup, the brains behind Arctic15.

Federal State Unitary Enterprise Experimental Design Bureau FAKEL (hereafter referred to as EDB Fakel) is one of the leading companies in Russia and in the world, having a 55-year experience in development of Electric Propulsion Systems (EPS), and more than a 40-year flight experience in Electric Propulsion Subsystems based on Stationary Plasma Thrusters (SPT), which were successfully used for station-keeping purposes aboard such spacecraft as Meteor and Meteor-Priroda in the 70s, and which have been used aboard spacecraft (S/C) of the Kosmos and Luch family since 1982, as well as aboard Gals and Express since 1994.

Glavkosmos is a subsidiary of Roscosmos State Space Corporation responsible for coordination of the international projects of ROSCOSMOS. The company has been on the market for more than 30 years now and has an impressive portfolio of more than 120 international contracts in space domain. We talked with Denis V. Lyskov, director general, about the company’s goals and priorities and how it manages to adapt to the aggressively competitive space market of today.

On 23rd June 2018, Rocket Lab’s launch window for the ‘It’s Business Time’ mission will open. During this 14-day window, the company will launch its groundbreaking Electron rocket and will transform access to space for the small satellite market.

7–8 May 2018, Geneva, Switzerland played host to this years’ Space Security Conference. Entitled ‘Space Security: The Next Chapter’, the events explored the existing framework for space governance in the context of a growing and evolving space industry and with an increasing number of private actors moving into the space domain. Is the current framework sufficient to deal with the new generation of space activities or do changes have to be made? Our very own Torsten Kriening attended the event and caught up with Daniel Porras, Space Security Fellow, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research and organiser of the event.

Dubai is clearly leading global innovation. The city has recently played host to the High Level Forum, the World Government Summit and the World Economic Forum providing examples of Dubai’s forward thinking and ambitious attitude. The UAE is fast becoming a hub for space and the government fully recognises the role that space and off-planet habitation will play in our futures. One of the initiatives that has been borne out of this ambition is the Dubai Future Foundation, which shape the future of the strategic sectors in cooperation with the government and private industry and one of their principal areas of focus is space. Torsten Kriening was lucky enough to spend some time with Dr. Noah Raford, Chief Operating Officer and Futurist-in-Chief of the Dubai Future Foundation.

Effective Space is poised to launch two spacecraft in 2020 that promise to transform our capabilities in space through in-orbit servicing. These SPACE DRONE™ spacecraft can extend the life of satellites that are reaching the end of their operational term, giving them a new lease of life, and enabling operators to continue bringing in revenues from their space assets long after they would originally have been decommissioned. This is true disruptive technology that will ultimately lead to many other avenues in the in-orbit servicing sector, and can help to tackle the critical challenges that the satellite industry faces such as how we deal with space debris. Helen Jameson, Editor-in-Chief, Spacewatch.Global, spoke to Daniel Campbell, UK Managing Director of Effective Space to get the lowdown on a company that is set to deliver unprecedented services to the space community.