The rocket scientist and space-tech entrepreneur is nurturing a new wave of talent to further the local space sector
Finding our place in the universe is a fascinating topic of discovery. The space race during the onset of the Cold War led to the emergence of key players in the sector, and sparked a worldwide interest in exploration beyond our home planet. When Apollo 11 first landed on the moon in 1969, an approximate 600 million people tuned in to witness the momentous milestone. Today, the industry has evolved to no longer just include global superpowers; private entities who have the technological know-how and support too have their sights set on commercialising space travel. Most recently, the space capsule that brought two astronauts to the International Space Station propelled by private space company, SpaceX, saw the highest online viewership on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) website to date. The democratisation of outer space has begun, and so has a new wave of talent looking to enter the sector.
(Related: Elon Musk's SpaceX Is The First Private Company To Send Humans Into Space)
In 2015, former NASA scientist Bidushi Bhattacharya established Bhattacharya Space Enterprises (BSE), and subsequently Astropreneurs Hub after noticing a distinct lack in the Singapore space sector's workforce pipeline. The former allows individuals from all walks of life who are curious about space exploration to engage in space-related education and training, while the latter is Asia's first space technology development and mentoring platform. "Singapore's location makes it a perfect stepping stone to the Asia Pacific market," shares Bhattacharya, "our workshop participants have gone on to establish start-ups that work on rockets, small satellites, ground-to-space communications and Internet of Things (IoT). A couple of start-ups are transitioning from seed to Series A funding, which is very exciting as well."
Today, BSE and Astropreneurs Hub have merged to form one space tech entity in Singapore known as Astrohub. BSE was first established first years ago, where it was coincidentally the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope—a project Bhattacharya worked on as a calibration engineer.