Five homegrown companies are moving at warp speed in the global space race
Sarah Bourke and Paul Kiernan’s Skytek started out providing instruction manuals for space. Today its international procedural viewer is behind the checklists and operations that help astronauts keep the International Space Station in orbit. Having just won a contract with the European Space Agency, Skytek is due to repeat the feat on board Gateway, a lunar space station slated for launch in 2028. The company has since moved into Earth observation, providing real-time satellite imagery to insurance companies, including Aon, Chubb and Airbus.
When war broke out in Ukraine, Skytek’s online platform SATELLITE CLUB let businesses monitor their assets and prevent trade with sanctioned companies. Many of its clients are in the maritime industry, tracking ships in high-risk areas, scanning regions with artificial intelligence trained to spot sudden changes in the environment, or completing pre/post-event assessments.
