Entrepreneurship

Singaporean New Space company Astroscale has announced that it will open a National In-Orbit Servicing Control Facility in Harwell, UK. Astroscale is among the most high-profile company looking to remove space debris from orbit.

Gilmour Space, the Australian and Singaporean New Space launch company, has announced the appointment of two space veterans, Pamela Melroy, a former NASA astronaut, and Dava Newman, former Deputy Administrator of NASA, to its advisory board, as it prepares to enter the global small launch market in 2020.

Thailand’s mu Space contributed part of the payload lofted by Blue Origin’s New Shepard Reusable Launch Vehicle in a successful test of the launch vehicle last week in the U.S. The six-kilogram payload, sent by mu Space, included experiments and technologies provided by mu Space as well as by Thai universities and space agencies.

The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) is carrying out critical work in terms of inspiring and guiding young people that wish to forge careers in the space industry. This support is provided by a dedicated team working at SGAC that are constantly focused on the delivery of the organisation’s vision. Torsten Kriening spoke to Andrea Jaime, former Executive Director of SGAC to find out more about its importance to our future space sector and its work.

GK Launch Services and Lavochkin Research and Production Association have signed an agreement on the Fregat upper stage production, its adaptation to the launch vehicle and its delivery to the Baikonur cosmodrome.

Industry veteran Bob Gough has joined the team at Goonhilly Earth Station as the company bids to expand its operations and develop new business opportunities across Australia and the Asia-Pacific. Gough will oversee commercial expansion across the region and will grow Goonhilly’s customer base in this new market, one that is experiencing rapid growth and that has just seen the establishment of the Australian Space Agency.

On May 30-31, 2018 the annual Arctic15 event dedicated to establishing links between startups, corporations and investors was held in Helsinki, Finland.

Sky and Space Global (SAS), the New Space satellite communications company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, successfully demonstrated the capabilities of its Diamonds test-bed Cubesats to the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) in Guyana, opening up the possibility of offering its narrowband communications service to the Caribbean.

The Russian commercial space company CosmoCourse has selected NPO Avtomatiki to develop the control system for its suborbital complex.

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