Every national space programme rests on four pillars: visionary leadership, unwavering political and economic commitment, realistic ambitions, and a deep acknowledgement that fundamental science is the essential bedrock for a successful and enduring space programme.

Professor Wu, Ji has continued that tradition of putting science first. In this interview, recorded during COSPAR2026 in Florence. He talks about his priorities of science, international collaboration and the profound significance of adherence to "Systems Engineering".

Just between you and me, one of the best parts of this podcast is the opportunity it gives me to meet some very unique and special people, like today's guest, Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell. Last summer I met and recorded this interview in Oxford. We covered a range of topics, including Pulsars (of course), women in science, her many awards and her faith.

As part of her PhD in Cambridge in the late 1960s, she helped build an instrument called the Interplanetary Scintillation Array. In the interview, we discussed many topics, including

Discovery of pulsars

Dealing journalists

Women in physics

Special Breakthrough Prize in 2018

Faith and status of science in society

The European Solar Telescope is a project to build ever laregr telescope on Earth but this time for a solar telescope. This interview was recorded in Tenerife but the EST will be built on the negighboring Island of Las Palmas.

The Toliman Space Telescope. A small, novel spacecraft looking for Earth-like planets in our nearest neighbour star system, Alpha Centauri.

Imagine a giant vertical railway stretching 100,000 km from the equator, somewhere in the Pacific, straight up into space. Instead of expensive, polluting rockets, the space elevator offers a smooth, slow electric ascent to Earth orbit. This "bridge to the stars" connects a floating Earth platform at 36,000 km to a massive counterweight located 64,000 km farther out. It is held taut by the Earth's rotation.

We are increasingly aware of the impact of space weather on spacecraft in space and, occasionally, on electrical power transmission on Earth, but what about its impact on the Earth's atmosphere? That is exactly the research interest of Professor Pallam Raju, Dean of the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India. Founded in 1947, the PRL is one of India's most prestigious scientific institutions, not least because it was founded by Dr Vikram Sarabhai.

Space Power Ltd, founded in 2019, is developing a novel solution for contactless power delivery using high-intensity lasers to extend the lifespans of ageing satellites in space. I spoke with its founder, Keval Dattani, in Nicosia during Cospar2025.org.

Professor Kai-Uwe Schrogl is a space law expert with experience in many roles, including working with the European Space Agency ESA, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and as the Director of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna. In this interview, recorded in Nicosia during cospar2025.org in November 2025, he discusses concerns about increasing commercialisation of space and the lunar surface—specifically, the absence of a universally accepted framework for lunar governance.

Cyprus is a small country with a small population and a small economy. But it has big ambitions in space. In this episode, recorded at Cospar 2025 in Nicosia, George Danos, who has been championing this case for Cyprus for years and can be considered Cyprus's Carl Sagan, explains the rise of Cyprus's space activities in communication services, small satellites, and collaboration with ESA and more.

From centruries of weaving in the state of Kerala in India to automated AI controlled machines weaving Graphene coated fibres in Manchester. A modern day Cottonopolis.