Entrepreneurship

Taiwanese New Space company Odysseus is set to relocate to Luxembourg from its home base in Tainan, Taiwan, after winning a U.S.$570,000 prize from the Luxembourg Space Agency, following the company’s first-place finish in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space Resources Challenge. Founded in southern Taiwan by a team of …

Japan launched its own satellite positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) system called Michibiki  on Thursday, 1 November 2018, as part of an effort to generate new businesses worth nearly 5 trillion yen (U.S.$44.4 billion) by 2025, as companies such as SoftBank Group, Mitsubishi Electric, and Hitachi develop applications in automated …

Following the launch failure of LandSpace’s Zhuque-1 satellite launch vehicle on 27 October 2018, the Chinese New Space launch company has publicly released its preliminary findings as to why its rocket failed 402 seconds after launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China. According to Andrew Jones in GBTimes, …

U.S. New Space orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has confirmed the launch window for the upcoming ‘It’s Business Time’ mission. The nine-day launch window will open from 11 to 19 November 2018 (NZDT), with daily launch opportunities between 16:00 – 20:00 NZDT (03:00 – 07:00 UTC). The Electron launch vehicle …

Japan’s New Space scene is little known and understood outside of Tokyo, despite the emergence of some interesting startups such as iSpace and Infostellar to name just two as well as some big Japanese government announcements about supporting startups in the space sector. SpaceWatch.Global reached out to Masashi Sato, a Senior Consultant …

Singaporean New Space debris removal company Astroscale has announced that it has raised U.S.$50 million from investors led by INCJ Ltd., as well as from SBI Investment Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd. This fourth round of funding means that the company has now raised U.S.$102 million in total …

Spacety, the Chinese small satellite startup, is expected to carry out two further launch missions on behalf of clients in November and December 2018, but exact dates are not yet confirmed according to the intrepid Andrew Jones in GBTimes. These two missions will follow the successful launch of four Spacety-built …

Australian New Space satellite communications company Fleet Space Technologies has selected U.S. commercial satellite launch company Rocket Lab to launch two Proxima small satellites from Rocket Lab’s New Zealand launch complex in November 2018. This pair of identical 1.5 U CubeSats are designed and built by Fleet. The satellites will …

The world’s first space security token was announced on 29 October 2018 at the Zurich Crypto Summit, by SpaceFund Inc., a Texas-based venture capital firm focused on using new blockchain technology to fund ‘frontier enabling’ space startups. “SpaceFund’s goal is to support the development and profitability of amazing new space …

A Chinese Long March 2C satellite launch vehicle successfully took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Northwest China on Monday, 29 October 2018, lofting the China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSAT) as its primary payload as well as four Cubesats for Chinese New Space satellite manufacturer Spacety. One other satellite belonging to …