Cosmo Bee

 

At dawn on November 27, 2025, Nuri stood ready on the launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, carrying the K-HERO CubeSat. Tucked inside the small satellite was a micro electric thruster developed by Cosmo Bee. Research on electric thrusters that had begun several years earlier in a KAIST laboratory had now made its way into space. Dongha Park, founder and CEO of Cosmo Bee, describes electric propulsion as “the most effective means of space transportation humanity has developed to date.”

 

Separation successful. Satellite deployment confirmed. Applause erupted in the control room. However, the real test for the Cosmo Bee team came afterward. The K-HERO CubeSat had to settle into orbit, and the team had to confirm whether the electric thruster inside it would operate in space as planned. Unlike in ground tests, the engine had to prove itself in the vacuum, radiation and extreme temperatures of space.

 

“In July 2023, to begin developing electric thrusters in earnest, I founded Cosmo Bee together with Professor Wonho Choe of KAIST and my laboratory colleagues. After more than two years of painstaking effort, we succeeded in developing the K-HERO CubeSat and an ultracompact electric thruster for ultra-small satellites to be installed on it. And as the CubeSat settled into orbit, Cosmo Bee was able to establish itself as Korea’s only satellite electric-thruster company.”

 

At the core of Cosmo Bee’s business is an electric thruster for ultra-small satellites weighing 300 kilograms or less. Existing electric thrusters have primarily been used for medium and large satellites because they require high power. Recently, however, the satellite industry has been rapidly reorganized around satellite constellations. A system that simultaneously operates numerous ultra-small satellites for communications and imaging requires a propulsion system capable of operating within a limited power supply of approximately 100 watts. Cosmo Bee succeeded in commercializing a thruster designed to meet these conditions.

 

Electric-thruster technology, regarded as an efficient propulsion system for maintaining orbits and extending satellite lifespans, is also considered a key device for next-generation missions such as in-orbit repair, space debris removal and asteroid resource mining.

 

“When the time comes when humanity can venture freely into more distant reaches of space, I hope the engine used at that time will be a device made by Cosmo Bee.”

 

 

Original article :  [Forbes Korea 30 Under 30 2026] DEEP & ENTERPRISE TECH | Dongha Park, 28, CEO of Cosmo Bee