“The International Space Summit (ISS) is not just a place for people to sit and listen to presentations. It’s a place where we make eye contact, get to know each other's faces, and share meals together. Collaboration begins in those moments.”
Lee Seong-hee, chairman of CONTEC, which hosts the ISS event now in its third year, said in an interview with ChosunBiz on the 5th, "Companies that make satellites, companies that operate ground stations, and companies that launch rockets all need each other," adding, "It's hard to survive without a platform for cooperation."
Chairman Lee built connections by presenting overseas from the early days of CONTEC's founding. He even waited over seven hours in front of his house to meet CEOs of renowned space corporations. This year, he has been promoting Korea's space industry primarily overseas, except for about a month.
Chairman Lee stated, "The greatest limitation I felt over my 20 years in the industry is that the Korean market is too small," noting, "For making satellite, launch vehicles, and ground stations to become a true industry, they need to be connected, but that was impossible within Korea, so we had no choice but to go abroad."
However, the overseas expansion of Korean space corporations has not been easy. There was no overseas platform to accept newly founded space businesses, and it was difficult to gain opportunities to present. It took 3 to 4 years of persistent requests to finally get a chance to present for 2 to 3 minutes. The relationships and trust built over 10 years have allowed CONTEC to grow into a leading domestic space corporation cooperating with over 200 global companies.
Chairman Lee remarked, "I decided to create a platform so that other domestic startups do not go through the same trial and error," adding, "CONTEC can thrive only if the entire Korean space ecosystem grows." The result of this is the ISS.
The first ISS event of 2023 literally started from 'ground zero.' Chairman Lee directly invited over 300 people from 30 countries. He also supported the costs so that startups could participate without financial burden. He commented, "Although there are space forums in Korea, most just end with sitting down and listening to presentations," stating, "We started this event to create practical networking opportunities."
The theme of this year's third ISS was 'cooperation.' Chairman Lee noted, "This time, I directly connected each company with the partners they needed," sharing that "the Kazakh ambassador introduced launch sites from the former Soviet era, and I facilitated INNOSPACE, a domestic space company, to utilize this site."
On that morning, CONTEC signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with 'Mission Space,' a space weather company from Luxembourg. The agreement entails equipping the satellites launched by CONTEC and Luxembourg with Mission Space's space weather software for sale, sharing the revenue. Earlier, they also signed MOUs with Japan's Infostellar and Warp Space, as well as Italy's MetaSensing.
The growth of ISS and its global cooperation achievements are rare success stories led by private corporations. However, Chairman Lee stated, "There are limits to what the private sector can achieve alone," emphasizing that "now, the government must play a true bridge role."
He introduced that the U.S. grows its ecosystem by cyclically distributing government projects to the private sector, while Europe leads multilateral cooperation through European Space Agency (ESA) projects. The Japanese government sends local resident ambassadors to promote booths for their corporations at overseas space exhibitions. Chairman Lee noted, "It seems that Korea still feels burdened by the government helping corporations," stressing that "in the meantime, opportunities are flying away."
Chairman Lee urged the newly launched Lee Jae-myung government to adopt a pragmatic space policy. He stated, "Space is not an industry that shows results within 1 to 2 years. It requires a long breath and patience," adding, "For international cooperation, it is necessary to have a long-term direction that assists startups in actually partnering with global partners rather than having public institutions or research organizations at the center."
He asserted that nurturing talent is essential for sustainable global cooperation. He mentioned, "While there are many aerospace engineering departments in domestic universities, there is a lack of practical education on developing launch vehicle engines, processing satellite images, and designing ground stations, resulting in a shortage of personnel ready for the industry right now." He proposed establishing practical education programs like a specialized graduate school for space at national universities.