Entrepreneurship

On May 21st and 22nd, space and digital experts will share their knowledge and discuss the latest trends during the next edition of Space Forum. Organised in parallel with ICT Spring, a global tech conference, Space Forum will take place at the European Convention Center, Luxembourg, at the very heart of Europe. The organizers have announced an impressive list of international speakers, companies and innovative startups, who will participate in the event.

The UAE Space Agency and Krypto Labs have announced the two winning teams of the GeoTech Innovation Programme. The winners were awarded funding of AED100,000 (U.S.$27,250.00) in cash and AED500,000 (U.S.$136,125.00) in kind, as well as the opportunity to accelerate and transform their innovative ideas into commercially viable and scalable market-ready products and services.

The Federal Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews has announced the success of the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) proposal led by The University of South Australia and Nova Systems.

Astroscale Holdings Inc., the market-leader in developing a space debris removal service to secure long-term orbital sustainability, has announced the opening of a new office in Denver, Colorado (“Astroscale U.S.”), adding a strategic United States base to already established entities in Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom.

EXOLAUNCH, a leading Germany-based launch services provider and cluster integrator for small satellites, and Virgin Orbit, a California-based launch vehicle provider for small satellites, have announced the signing of an MOU for transporting EXOLAUNCH customers’ payloads on dedicated and rideshare missions with Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne as early as 2020.

While SpaceIL's Beresheet lunar lander met with a tragic end on the Moon's surface, it has paved the way for a number of other private Moon missions that are currently in the works. Among these is Japan's ispace, and SpaceWatch.Global's Editor-in-Chief Helen Jameson spoke with Kyle Acierno about the company's plans.

The Beresheet Moon lander, developed by Israeli not-for-profit company SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, has failed in its bid to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface. The spacecraft is the first commercial mission to reach the Moon. Communication was lost with Beresheet at approximately 489 feet above the lunar surface and it made its hard landing at 3.25pm EDT.

SpaceX is celebrating this morning after its Falcon heavy rocket launched the Arabsat 6-A communications satellite and also achieved a triple rocket landing in the process.

Scottish New Space company Alba Orbital has announced that it has customers for its second Alba Cluster Mission slated for a third quarter 2019 launch on a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle from New Zealand.

After the last week’s lift-off of the PSLV-C45 launch vehicle with two NanoAvionics nano-satellites, “M6P“ and “Blue Walker 1“, onboard, the company is pleased to confirm that the communication was successfully established with both satellites and they are flying in the Low Earth Orbit in a healthy condition.