Luxembourg-based Mission Space joined us for our 12-week Mission 8 accelerator programme. Their cofounders, CEO Ksenia Moskalenko and CCO, Artem Axelrod participated in sessions throughout the programme.

Storms in space and other space weather incidents are estimated to cost European and American economies over $10 billion a year, and $850 million worth of satellites have been lost over the last 5 years due to space weather events. The current space weather systems do not provide actionable insights and transmission to earth is delayed. The solution designed by Mission Space provides consumer-ready insights in real-time through their satellite payload.

We asked Ksenia about her experience on the programme, how it prepared her for our Investor showcase and what is in stall for Mission Space over the coming months.

Compared to other space tech accelerators, what made Seraphim Space Camp unique? 

Having participated in more than 5 deep-tech accelerators all across the world, Seraphim Space Camp was THE program to prepare us for conversations, due-diligence and discussions with investors. Not only do you learn and listen from the management team of the world's first VC fund specialising in SpaceTech, you get to apply that knowledge and practice right away, getting introduced 1-1 to dozens of angel investors and VC funds all over the globe. You also have a chance to have personal meetings with the Seraphim team regarding your business models, fundraising strategies, product marketing, etc and they are always there to help, listen and guide you. We came to Seraphim Space Camp with five different decks which took twenty minutes to present and left with an absolutely polished narrative, a short deck and a handful of experts to always rely on. A unique, intensive and business-changing opportunity!

What advice would you give to other younger deep-tech co-founders? 

Truly believe in your idea. Along your journey, you will hear all kinds of different opinions, views and comments regarding the way you operate and run your business, but make sure you take each one of those with a grain of salt and filter out what is objective and what is subjective. Not taking risks is the biggest risk a young entrepreneur can possibly take, so hold your ground, stay positive and just keep going forward!

What’s next for Mission Space? 

Successfully raised our pre-seed and flown our technology in the stratosphere, we have announced our first flight for December of 2022, aboard Endurosat's cubesat platform, who on the other side will be among the first customers of our space weather analytics service for satellite operators. We plan to make our software model of the near-Earth radiation environment available in mid-2022, performing data analytics in a software cloud to quantify the risks to individual satellites and to correlate spacecraft anomalies with the intensity and type of recorded high-energy particles. With data supplied by our constellation, Mission Space will provide data and analytics to government agencies in addition to establishing a cloud-based platform to help commercial satellite operators prepare for solar storms, assess risks and monitor radiation levels.

It was a pleasure to work with Ksenia and Artem throughout the programme, we are rooting for Ksenia, Artem and the rest of the Mission Space team to succeed in the months ahead.

If you are interested in finding more about how Mission Space is revolutionising space weather data visit their website here.

If you are a pre-series A technology startup with a space application, we would love to hear from you, more about our accelerator can be found here.