Entrepreneurship

The Satcoms Innovation Group (SIG) has appointed Helen Weedon as Managing Director. The appointment marks significant restructuring of the innovation forum. Helen succeeds Martin Coleman who will commence as a member of the group’s advisory board.

Globalstar Europe Satellite Services Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar Inc. and the leader in satellite messaging and emergency notification technologies, announced on 9 January 2020 that researchers from the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, The University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Utrecht University are using drifter buoys fitted with SPOT Trace satellite trackers to understand the dramatic increase of Sargassum seaweed across the North Atlantic.

The Nigerian Communicatons Commission (NCC) has released a list of 55 authorised space stations and the licensees allowed to provide satellite communications services across Nigerian sovereign territory, with the UK’s OneWeb being the only megaconstellation provider listed.

Kleos Space has announced that its Kleos Scouting Mission will be launched on board an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C49 mission from Chennai, India, in early 2020.

Following the retirement of David Pollack on 1 January 2020, Israel’s Spacecom has announced the appointment of Itzhak Shnaiberg as the company’s interim chief executive officer.

AzerCosmos, the Azerbaijani satellite operator, reported revenues of U.S.$40.6 million for the period of January to November 2019, a 69 percent increase over the same period in 2018, when the company generated revenues of just U.S.$25.6 million.

Isar Aerospace, part of the German New Space ecosystem, announced the successful closing of a 17 Million US Dollar Round A funding in December 2019 (as reported by SpaceWatch.Global - LINK). SpaceWatch.Global's COO Torsten Kriening had a chance to speak with Daniel Metzler, Co-Founder and CEO of Isar Aerospace shortly after the announcement.

These personal reviews are being published during the holiday season. This is Carla Sharpe of South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Azercosmos, Turkey's leading digital broadcasting platform Digiturk, and mobile phone operator Vodafone signed cooperation agreements on 27 December 2019.

These personal reviews are being published during the holiday season. This is Ksenia Synkova of SpaceWatch.Global.