Tag Archives: New Space Economy

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 at the Nomura Research Institute Ltd. (NRI) in Tokyo and a leading expert on the Japanese space startup scene, to find out what the current state of play is and what the future holds.

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 since its founding in 2013.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Satellite Vu has taken the title of Best International Start-Up at the Supernova Challenge, part of the Future Stars event held during GITEX in Dubai last week. Satellite Vu, was invited to attend by the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) as part of its Innovation Challenge.

Chinese New Space launch company LandSpace suffered a failure of the third stage of its Zhuque-1 satellite launch vehicle Saturday, 27 October 2018, as it attempted to become the first Chinese private launch company to reach orbit, according to Andrew Jones in Space News.

After seven fruitful years with the Secure World Foundation, Michael K. Simpson is retiring from his role as Executive Director.

New Zealand startup ZENNO Astronautics, a satellite propulsion and software company founded by three students at the University of Auckland, has won a NZ$25,000 (U.S.$16,240) share of a NZ$100,000 (U.S.$64,950) total prize fund of the university’s 2018 Velocity Challenge.