For the past 16 years, October 27th has always been a very special day for me. On this date – after years of hard work and many weeks in the cold north of Russia – my first satellite, SSETI Express, was launched into Earth orbit on a ballistic missile. Such a powerful experience to feel the extreme force of the rocket only to find myself in a cold parking lot on the missile base not two hours later receiving signals from our baby in space. I knew I would always be in the space business.
Karl Kaas, CEO & founder of Space Inventor
On this day, 16 years ago, Space Inventor’s founder and CEO, Karl Kaas, launched his first satellite into orbit. The SSETI Express was designed and produced with the aim of taking pictures of Earth and function as a radio transponder as well as perform as a testbed for various designs including a cold-gas attitude control system. The ESA micro satellite was mostly built by students from all over Europe, managed by ESA’s Education Department, where Karl worked full time on the project from 2003 and participated in the two launch campaigns in Russia:
“For the past 16 years, October 27th has always been a very special day for me. On this date – after years of hard work and many weeks in the cold north of Russia – my first satellite, SSETI Express, was launched into Earth orbit on a ballistic missile. Such a powerful experience to feel the extreme force of the rocket only to find myself in a cold parking lot on the missile base not two hours later receiving signals from our baby in space. I knew I would always be in the space business.”
Karl Kaas, CEO & founder of Space Inventor
Following the completion of the SSETI Express mission, Karl went almost directly onto founding his first successful satellite company. After innumerable projects and with years of experience gained, Karl chose to create Space Inventor, building upon the innovative spirit that had been so fundamental to the SSETI Express project. Despite being a young company, Space Inventor and its incredible team, has over 120 years of combined satellite engineering experience.