Cosmo Bee

[2026 KEY PLATFORM Special Session: K-Space Forum] Session 3: NewSpace, New Faces IR Cosmo Bee, Developer of Hall Thrusters for Satellites

 Dongha Park, CEO of Cosmo Bee, presents the company’s next-generation Hall thruster during the “NewSpace, New Faces IR” segment of the inaugural K-Space Forum, held as Special Session 4 of Money Today’s 2026 KEY PLATFORM conference at Conrad Seoul in Yeongdeungpo-gu on April 24. / Photo by Changhyun Kim

 

“Cosmo Bee is a company developing technology that enables freedom of movement in space. This technology is essential for creating new businesses in space, including on-orbit servicing (OOS). When the day comes that humanity lives on Mars, I want us to operate a logistics business that transports cargo from Earth to Mars.” Dongha Park, CEO of Cosmo Bee, recently shared this vision in an interview with Unicorn Factory, Money Today’s startup media platform. The company’s vision and ambition are also reflected in its name, which means “a bee in space.”

 

Founded in 2023, space startup Cosmo Bee has successfully developed Korea’s first Hall thruster for microsatellites. A Hall thruster is a type of electric propulsion system used to control satellite maneuvers, including station-keeping and orbit correction.

 

Launch vehicles can burn fuel to lift a satellite from Earth into orbit. Afterward, however, for the satellite to move to another orbit or head toward the Moon or other planets in space, where there is no oxygen, a separate propulsion technology suited to the space environment is required. This is where a Hall thruster becomes essential.

 

Unlike conventional chemical-fuel engines, a Hall thruster ionizes gaseous fuel and accelerates it using an electric field to generate movement. Thanks to its high thrust, it has been adopted for low Earth orbit satellite constellations and is the most widely used type of electric thruster. A Hall thruster allows a satellite to carry less fuel, making it possible to build the satellite smaller and lighter. SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, led by Elon Musk, also use the same electric-propulsion method, but they are specialized for medium and large satellites.

 

Cosmo Bee’s Hall thruster for microsatellites is attracting growing attention as the privately led satellite services market begins to take off. The technology is particularly important for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. LEO generally spans altitudes of approximately 160 to 2,000 km above Earth. To improve observation accuracy, dozens of satellites are often deployed in a single orbital plane. “For multiple satellites to maintain proper spacing within the same orbit, their speeds must be carefully controlled through the efficient use of propellant,”

 

Park said. “That is why electric thrusters are needed: they use propellant efficiently and minimize the amount of propellant that satellites must carry.” Although it was founded less than three years ago, Cosmo Bee is rapidly building flight heritage. The company’s electric thruster was installed aboard the K-HERO CubeSat, which was launched on the fourth flight of Nuri, Korea’s domestically developed launch vehicle, in November 2025. A hollow cathode—one of the core components of an electric propulsion system—was scheduled to be carried aboard Nuri’s fifth flight in August 2026 for in-space verification. “We plan to validate our technology step by step through successive Nuri launches and continue building flight heritage,”

 

Park said. “Ultimately, we want to commercialize our electric thrusters and contribute to greater technological self-reliance across Korea’s space industry.” The company’s ultimate destination is Mars. “When humanity begins living on Mars, our goal is for Cosmo Bee, as a Korean company, to grow into a central pillar of the Earth-to-Mars logistics system,” Park said. Meanwhile, Cosmo Bee was scheduled to deliver an investor relations presentation at the 2026 KEY PLATFORM K-Space Forum, a special program of Money Today’s global conference, held at Conrad Seoul in Yeouido on April 24.

 

The event was expected to bring together approximately 200 space industry leaders, experts, and investors. Launched in March 2026, the K-Space Forum was established to broaden the industry’s focus across the entire space value chain—including satellite manufacturing and operations, ground-station infrastructure, data analysis, and materials, parts, and equipment—and to promote industry-wide growth by connecting capital, technology, and companies. As the forum’s first activity, the conference will examine the space industry from multiple perspectives, including technology, investment, research and global developments, and present the views of experts in each field in a talk-concert format.

 

 

Original article : Korean Startup Takes on Domestic Development of Satellite Hall Thrusters, Sets Its Sights on Mars