Czech Space Week – the largest domestic festival of space activities starts28/11/2022|Press releasesThis year's Czech Space Week, a festival of space activities organised by the Ministry of Transport together with CzechInvest, the Observatory and Planetarium of the Capital City of Prague, Planetum and other partners, under the auspices of the Czech EU Presidency will go beyond the borders of the Czech Republic and even further. The festival kicked off today, on 28 November, at the Prague Congress Centre with the two-day Space2Business event and will last until Friday, 2 December. The agenda for businesses, investors, start-ups, students, children and other fans of space is really big. It will celebrate the successes of Czech businesses operating in the space industry and introduce innovations that are driving the space sector in the Czech Republic. The event will also address the impact of the war in Ukraine as part of the Czech Copernicus User Forum. The seminar "Defending European Interests in Space" will focus on the increasingly interlinked topics of space and defence. As part of its international overlap, a workshop will also be held to strengthen cooperation with the Indo-Pacific region. The general partner of the event is the Brno-based company TRL Space Systems. The Czech Republic has great potential and talent in the field of space activities. Compared to other countries that have joined ESA in recent years, the Czech Republic is rated as the most successful and can compete well with many Western countries. More than 50 Czech companies and dozens of other Czech subcontractors are actively involved in about 500 projects under the ESA umbrella. The Czech Republic has also contributed to the preparation of 3 launch vehicles and 30 scientific and purely commercial ESA missions. "The space industry in the Czech Republic is growing every year, we have dozens of companies involved in hundreds of space projects, a solid academic and research background and an active start-up scene where more than 40 start-ups are incubating through the ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) in Prague and Brno. We must emphasise that we are increasing our contribution to ESA, thus increasing the scope for the involvement of Czech companies in European space projects, and also that this year three satellites that are Czech only were launched," says transport minister Martin Kupka. This trio of satellites will be complemented, shortly after the Czech Space Week festival, by the launch of the fourth Czech satellite this year in December: BDSAT2 that, like the previous ones, will be carried into space by SpaceX's Falcon rocket as part of the shared flight programme. One third of all Czech satellites in history were launched in a single year, which shows how the dynamics of the Czech space industry continues to grow. The Brno-based company TRL Space Systems is also preparing to push the horizons of the space industry soon, because it will launch its own satellite called TROLL, financed entirely from private investment, into Earth orbit in mid-2024. With its 6U size, it will also be the largest commercial satellite since the Czech Republic was founded. "Thanks to this investment, the company will join the handful of European system integrators, i.e. companies that are capable of building complete satellites. This is a high added value service and a unique opportunity for the Czech Republic. In addition, we will test our own products on the satellite and offer them to our customers on all continents," says Petr Kapoun, founder and CEO of TRL Space Systems. Petr Kapoun and his guests will discuss the mission and the products the company will test on the satellite and for the LUGO lunar exploration mission during the Space Together and Building Lunar Economy panel discussions, which are part of the Space2Business – the main and opening event of this year's Czech Space Week festival. It is an “industrial day of space companies” together with an international conference, a B2B section, a trade fair and a rich supporting programme for visitors interested in innovative space technologies. The aim of the event is to promote entrepreneurship in the space industry and create new business partnerships. The event follows a series of successful Space Industry Days held at previous years of the festival. This time, however, the event will pay special attention to cooperation across Europe and with countries in Africa and the Middle East. The Space2Business event also includes a Demo Day of the ESA BIC business incubator, during which new incubating start-ups will be presented. The best Czech start-up in the ESA BIC project will then compete in the so-called Space start-up pitch competition, in which it will compete together with start-ups from other European ESA incubators and from EU and EUSPA competitions. The expert jury will then select the best European space start-up. That start-up will receive a quarter of a million crowns and support in the form of mentoring. The new Space Hub project, part of the Technology Incubation, wants to make it easier for companies to start business. The Space Hub will officially launch in January next year and its aim will be, among other things, to deepen cooperation between the academic sector and Czech space companies. "A large part of the demand from the academic sector is directed to abroad, even though there are already more than 100 space companies in the Czech Republic and some of them could be able to supply components for scientific missions. We would like to complete the missing tool that would systematically and mutually connect supply and demand, so that new and interesting collaborations can emerge. This is exactly what we would like to help with this year's Czech Space Week," concludes Tereza Kubicová, Deputy for Technology Development at CzechInvest and founder of the Czech Space Week festival.