space

The effects of climate change are getting worse. Freezing in Afghanistan, floods in California, warm winters in Europe – last year offered up all the evidence needed to show that solutions to what Antonio Guterres calls ‘global boiling’ are badly needed. And investors can help.

Open Cosmos the leading space tech business making satellites that gather data to solve pressing global challenges has just raised £39.6M in Series B funding from impact investors ETF Partners, Trill Impact and A&G.

Vlad Sitnikov is on a space mission. He wants to put satellites into low-orbit to broadcast corporate logos or emergency messages to the citizens of cities, across the globe, each dawn and dusk. But first he needs to find the money.

As humanity is reaching for the moon and beyond, international hackathon competitions such as ActInSpace (AIS) are helping us to imagine and prepare for tomorrow’s world.

Aerospace accelerator programme, Aerospace Xelerated, is calling for applications for its third year. The programme will support startups working with AI to improve the way aircrafts are built.

Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has selected the rocket it will use to kick-start space launches from the island of Unst in Shetland. The vehicle, called the RS1, will be provided by ABL Space Systems of El Segundo, California. If everything comes together, an inaugural flight could occur next year. Lockheed is looking to stimulate the launch business in the UK to take advantage of a rapidly expanding market for small satellites.