The new space race goes far beyond SpaceX and Blue Origin, as you’ll hear in this engaging DLD24 discussion between Bulent Altan (Alpine Space Ventures), Nils Bernhardt (The Exploration Company) and Raycho Raychev (Enduro Sat).
“Everyone in the space race seems to be starting their companies as a billionaire”, Altan observes. “So how do you even start a space business without having sold a dotcom at some point in time?”
The answer largely lies in excellent universities and the strength of European Space Agency ESA Nils Bernhardt says. “I think that’s the unique thing in Europe, because in Europe we have this huge source of talent”, The Exploration Company founder notes. “We started with six people, and together we already had more than 90 years of collective space experience.”
For Enduro Sat, the hurdles were higher. With just 25,000 euros in funding, the Bulgarian satellite data startup had to be laser-focused on quickly becoming profitable, Raycho Raychev says. “We put thousands of new systems in orbit. We helped hundreds of new customers that would otherwise never have had access to orbit.”
Watch the video for more insights about Europe’s innovative space ecosystem, and make sure to read our interview with Bulent Altan to go deeper.
