Date: 25^th-26^th January 2011

Venue: Marina Mandarin Hotel Singapore
 

GSTC 2011 was successfully held in Marina Mandarin Hotel Singapore from 25^th to 26^th January 2011.

The event brought together about 170 delegates including regional and international decision makers, operation managers, end users, technologists and procurement specialists in the industry. A pre-opening cocktail reception was held for all delegates at The Pump Room on 24^th January 2011.


GSTC 2011 was organized by Singapore Space & Technology Association (SSTA). The conference is supported by the Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB), Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), Association of Aerospace Industries (Singapore) (AAIS), National University of Singapore's Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing & Processing (CRISP), Singapore Exhibition & Convention Bureau and Singapore Tourism Board (STB). The official media partner is Aviation Week, and publishing partners are Aviation Week & Space Technology and Aerospace Singapore.

The Guest-of-Honour for GSTC 2011 was Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry & Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts. The conference started with the Opening Address by the Guest-of-Honour. In his Opening Address for GSTC 2011, Mr Tan pointed out the space industry in Asia has great potential for growth. There is an increasing demand for space-related services and a strong push towards technology advancement and new applications. Space industry in Asia will be growing rapidly in the next few decades.

 

For Day 1, there were keynote addresses by Sir Martin Sweeting, Chairman, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited and Dr. Thomas Snitch, Senior Advisor, GeoEye. The delegates were then given a short break for Coffee and strategic Networking.

 

The short tea break for day 1 was followed by an International Space Agency Dialogue. The distinguished panellists included Dr. Hiroshi Yamakawa, Secretary General, Japan Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy, Cabinet Secretariat, who shared with the delegates on the Current Status of the Japanese Space Policy. The next speakers were Mr. Peter Klupar, Director, Engineering Directorate, NASA AMES, Dr. Isaac Ben-Israel, Chairman, Israel Space Agency, Mr. Ahmed Al Mansoori, Director General, Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology and Mr. Gunter Schreier, Director, Business Development & GMES, DFD & DLR, who shared on Programs and Partnerships in Earth Observation.

 

Following the International Space Agency Dialogue, the Industry Chiefs Dialogue – Space Today and Tomorrow was held. The distinguished panellists included Mr. Hugues Laporte-Weywada, Senior Vice President, EADS Astrium, Mr. Christophe Bauer, Vice President, Space Exploration Technologies, Dr. Thomas Snitch, Senior Advisor, GeoEye, Mr. Richard Bowles, Director, ArianeSpace and Dr. Hiroshi Koyoma, General Manager, Electric Systems Group, Office for Space Utilization & Strategy Planning, Space Systems Division, MELCO.

 

The two dialogues was immediately followed by Lunch and some time for networking among the delegates. Post Lunch, the Defence and Security Track saw interesting presentations from Dr. Harold Raveche, President, Stevens Institute of Technology, Mr. Iwan Morris, Head of Business Development, Secure Satcom System, EADS Astrium, Mr. Albert Antoine, Regional Sales Director, exactEarth and Dr. Timo Bretschneider, Senior Expert – Signal Processing, Head of Real-time Embedded Systems, EADS Innovation Works.

 

This highly successful Track was followed after a short tea break. The Geospatial Information Services (GIS) followed next with distinguished panellists such as Mr. Philippe Campenon, Asia Pacific Business Development Director, Spot Image S.A., Mr. Andy Stephenson, Senior Regional Director, Asia, GeoEye, Mr. Abhay S Mittal, Senior Director, Commercial Sales, Digitalglobe International Inc. and Mr. Kwok Leong Keong, Centre Director, CRISP. After this industry dialogue, the first day of GSTC 2011 came to an end.

 

VIPs were hosted to a VIP Cocktail at the Marina Mandarin Pool Garden, through the courtesy of Space Exploration Technologies.

 

Day 2 of GSTC 2011 started at 9am on 26^th January 2011 with a regional panel – Regional Space Ecosystem. The distinguished panellists included Mr. Takayuki Kawai, Manager, International Relations, JAXA, Mr. Ratan Shrivastava, Director, Aerospace & Defence Practice, South Asia & Middle East, Frost & Sullivan, Mr. Samard Doungwichitrkul, Deputy Executive Director, Geo-Informatics & Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) and Mr. Kwok Leong Keong, Director, Centre for Remote Imaging & Processing.

 

After a networking coffee break, the session resumed with a Commercial Space Transportation – A new era of Space Entrepreneurship. The distinguished regional panellists were Mr. Christophe Chavagnac, Chief Engineer & Program Manager, Suborbital Spaceplane, Business Division Launchers, EADS Astrium, Mr. Charles Lauer, Vice President, Rocketplane, Mr. Joerg Kreisel, CEO, JKIC and Mr. Jonathan Hofeller, Manager, Business Development, Space Exploration Technologies. This lively Dialogue was immediately followed by Lunch and an opportunity for the delegates to network again.

 

Lunch was followed by the SAR Technology & Satellite Constellations Track. The Track started with Prof. Dr. Hans Martin Braun, Director, RST Radar Systemtechnik GmbH on A Satellite High Resolution SAR Raw Data Simulator. This was followed by Mr. Franceso Passarata, Marketing & Sales Manager, Observation, Exploration & Navigation Business Line, Thales Alenia Space, Mr. Benjamin Stern, Business Development Manager, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. The SAR Technology & Satellite Constellation Track ended with a paper from Mr. Philippe Campenon, Asia Pacific Business Development Director, Spot Image S.A., touching on the Next Generation of The Disaster Monitoring Constellation.

 

The last session for Day 2 – Small Satellites Technology & Advanced Applications started with a paper on Development of a High Agility Small Satellite Mission by Mr. Alex da Silva Curiel, Head of International Business, Surry Satellite Technology. This was followed by Dr. Joey Shelton, Principal Staff, Trivector International on NanoSatellites in the New Space Ecosystem. The third speaker was Prof. Low Kay Soon, Director, Satellite Research Centre, Nanyang Technological University where he discussed on the Historical Development and Application of Nano and Pico Satellites. The day ended with the final paper by Mr. Lee Foh Cheong, Chief Engineer, SingTel Satellite, Singapore Telecommunications.

 

In all, the two day event saw a total of about 170 delegates from countries ranging from Europe, US and the Asian Region. GSTC 2011 facilitated the participation from NASA, GISTDA (Thailand), Israel Space Agency and Japan Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy. The organizers will be building up on the success of this event to a bigger and better event in 2012.

 

Below is a snapshot of the profile/demography of the participants. There were a total of about 200 participants. I have also attached the GSTC 2011 programme for your perusal.

• Guest-of-Honour GSTC 2011 - Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry & Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts, Singapore
• Dr. Thomas Snitch, Senior Adviser, Geoeye, USA
• Mr. Hugues Laporte-Weywada, Senior Vice-President, EADS Astrium, France
• Mr. A.S. Mittal, Senior Director, Commercial Sales, Digital Globe International Inc, Singapore
• Mr. Tan Peng Yam, Chief Executive, Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA), Ministry of Defence, Singapore
• Mr. Quek Tong Boon, Chief Research Technology Officer & Chief Defence Scientist, Defence Research & Technology Office (DRTECH), Ministry of Defence, Singapore
• Mr. Quek Gim Pew, Chief Executive, DSO National Laboratories (DSO), Singapore
• Prof. Lui Pao Chuen, Adviser, National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore
• Dr. Raj Thampuran, Executive Director, Science & Engineering Research Council, Agency Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
• Bernard Nee, Executive Director, i3 Division, Economic Development Board of Singapore (EDB)
• Mr. Ahmad Al Mansoori, Director General, Emirates Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST), Dubai
• Dr. Zvi Kaplan, Director General, Israel Space Agency
• Prof Isaac Ben Israel, Chairman, Israel Space Agency
• Dr. Hiroshi Yamakawa, Secretary General, Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of Japan
• Prof Sir Martin Sweeting, Group Executive Chairman, Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), UK
• Mr. Joerg Kreisel, CEO, JKIC, Germany
• Mr Harold Raveche, President, Stevens Institute, USA
• Mr Ratan Shrivastava, Director, Defence & Aerospace, Frost & Sullivan, India
• Mr. Gunter Schreier, Business Development & GMES, German Remote Sensing Data Centre – DFD, German Aerospace Centre – DLR
• Mr Peter Klupar, Director of the Engineering Directorate, NASA AMES, USA
• Mr Kwoh Leong Keong, Centre Director, Centre for Remote, Sensing & Processing (CRISP), Singapore
• Dr Hans Martin Braun, Director, Raumfahrt Systemtechnik (RST), Germany
• Mr Christophe Bauer, Vice President, Commercial Sales, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), USA
• Mr Richard Bowles, Director, Arianespace ASEAN Representative Office, Singapore
• Mr. Samard Doungwichitrkul, Deputy Executive Director, GISTDA, Thailand

Programme Managers and Engineers from

• DSTA
• DSO
• Ministry of Defence

Managers & Executives from

• Singapore Land Authority (SLA)
• EDB
• Maritime Port Authority (MPA)
• Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS)