Entrepreneurship

It’s been nearly half a century since humans left footprints on the moon and during that time human space exploration has largely centered on manned low-Earth orbit missions and unmanned scientific exploration. But now, high levels of private funding, advances in technology, and growing public-sector interest is renewing the call to look toward the stars.

The United States National Space Council was re-established by President Donald J. Trump in 2017 after ceasing operations in 1993. The Council works to develop a strategy for national space activities and also to foster co-operation with other countries and space agencies in order to advance the U.S. space agenda and to share information.

The China Commercial Aerospace Forum (CCAF) 2018, held in Wuhan in late September, was significant for a variety of reasons. Occurring in the latter part of the most dynamic year in Chinese commercial aerospace history, the conference was buzzing with activity and optimism, and saw representatives from both private and government space companies in attendance exchanging ideas and discussing trends.

Australian narrowband satellite communications New Space company, Sky and Space Global, has signed a distribution agreement with Latin American mobile satellite services (MSS) provider GlobalSat Group LLC to provide machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) coverage in South America.

Shetland Space Centre (SSC) has joined forces with telecom experts in the neighbouring Faroe Islands, forming a unique international partnership to drive forward space industry developments in the two island groups and beyond.

Chinese New Space company Chengdu GuoXing Aerospace Technology Co. Ltd., also known as ADA Space, is building satellites powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI); the company has already launched two and is preparing for a third launch in early December 2018.

Skyrora, the Scottish New Space satellite launch company, has moved its corporate headquarters to Princes Street in the heart of Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city, under a five year lease.

MIURA-1, the suborbital rocket developed by PLD Space, will be launched from "El Arenosillo" Experimentation Center (CEDEA), of the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), Spain's national space agency, during the third quarter of 2019. This technological demonstrator, whose development began in 2011, is designed to provide scientific and commercial access to space from Spain.

Kleos Space S.A. reports the signing of a commercial agreement with UK headquartered Intelligence Management Support Services Ltd (IMSL) for them to purchase Kleos Scouting Mission Data as a Service and to integrate and sell the Kleos data with related analytics services to government and industry customers around the world.

Australia's leading rocket company, Gilmour Space Technologies, has signed a long-term collaboration and supply agreement with global launch industry supplier, RUAG Space.