Entrepreneurship

OneWeb, the UK-headquartered global satellite communications company, is scheduled to launch its second batch of 34 satellites on 6-7 February 2020 on board a Soyuz 2.1B satellite launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with Sun Explorer Solar Orbiter is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 7-8 February 2020. RUAG Space is supplying the thermal insulation, the structure of the satellite, and the on-board computer.

By Raphael Roettgen - We are only one month into the new decade and, while we have not yet seen the SpaceX/BlueOrigin/OneWeb type mega financing rounds of 2019, this month has brought over U.S.$280 million in disclosed financing transactions in the space sector.

The space agencies of the United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg, in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), convened the UAE/Luxembourg Space Investment Forum on 29 January 2020 in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the UAE.

Eutelsat Communications’ EUTELSAT 7C satellite has entered full commercial service and is ready to support broadcast customers across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Turkey.

Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall was in Athens for the France-Greece space industry day organized by CNES, the French Embassy in Greece, and the Greek authorities, on 31 January 2020.

Last year was a record year for the space industry with the Seraphim Space Index showing continued momentum from global venture investors who increased their investment in the sector by 21%.

GMV, the world's number-one independent supplier of commercial telecommunication satellite control centers, has signed a contract with Northrop Grumman for development and supply of the Satellite Operations Center for Space Norway HEOSAT's ASBM-1 and ASBM-2 satellites.

Kinéis, a CLS Group spin-off, announced on 3 February 2020 it has raised 100 million Euros, achieving its target to finance a constellation of nanosatellites dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT).

Rocket Lab, the commercial small satellite launch company, successfully launched a small classified payload into low-Earth orbit (LEO) for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand on 31 January 2020.