Bulgarian Nanosatellite Startup Endurosat Featured in NASA’s State of the Art Report
This week EnduroSat, founded in 2015 by Rayco Raychev and innovator in the area of nanosatellites, was featured in the NASA State of the Art Report 2018. This is another recognition for the Bulgarian space tech disruptive company and its innovative CubeSat solutions.
Earlier the same week, EnduroSat was awarded by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Karina Angelieva, as the Most Innovative company in Horizon 2020 SME Instrument in Bulgaria.
A Great Leap for Bulgarian Space Industry
Last summer, thanks to EnduroSat, the Bulgarian startup ecosystem celebrated a historical space industry moment: In the early hours of July 14, EnduroSat’s satellite, which was launched in May, activated in space and connected to two ground stations. The main purpose of the mission was to provide practically-oriented education on the topic of satellite communications for the first time in Bulgaria and to popularize the radio amateur activities.
Governmental organizations, educational and research institutions are investing more and more in the space industry and CubeSats are among the hot topics on the market according to Business Insider. EnduroSat is a Sofia-based company that was founded in 2015 by Raycho Raychev to manufacture nanosatellites and communication systems that allow companies and universities to conduct researches and collect data in space in an easier and more cost effective way. The satellites are designed for a range of missions from low Earth orbit to Space exploration with main focus on swarm satellite applications and inter-satellite connectivity. Thanks to CubeSats, companies and organizations could choose the list of components they want to put in their satellite according to their specific needs and fit them in a small cubical device.
So far, EnduroSat has attracted €2.2M investments from the Bulgarian fund Neo Ventures and the European Union executive agency for SMEs.
A Greater Mission
Alongside Endurosat, the Stanford University Graduate Raycho Raychev has founded the free and also one of the largest space academies globally – Space Challenges Program. The program explores areas such as astrophysics, astronomy, biotechnology, AI & robotics, neuroscience etc. With the cooperation of Space Challenges Program and the online education platform Spaceport (also founded by Raychev), the educational solution that EnduroSat is providing leverages on the European space science education. Raychev is also part of the global entrepreneurship network Endeavor.
