All companies encounter important milestones during it's lifetime. Maybe not necessarily an everyday business entity, but the Puli Space team already reached important steps too. For example, we already have an office at Colabs for software development and CAD engineering but we need to actually build the various hardware somewhere. But don't worry, the Puli's going to have a home now. Thanks to our sponsors and team members we introduced our new base, the assembly shop on 2011 November 11^th, where we plan to develop and build our first Moon rovers and the necessary accessories.

It was a rare experience: not only did most of our team come together for the opening but our supporters celebrated with us at the Gödöllő Business Park as well. Both the management of the Business Park and the Local Authority of Gödöllő support our project and offers us the space necessary for our work.

After some compulsory group photos, we received greetings from two people who unfortunately couldn't attend in person. Bertalan Farkas, the first Hungarian in space, sent us his best wishes in a letter forwarded by our leader, Tibor Pacher. Actually, the second Hungarian in space, Károly (Charles) Simonyi was also represented since his bother, Tamás Simonyi was there with us. The other person who greeted us from a distance was Alex Hall, senior director of the Google Lunar X Prize, via a video message.

Next came our own presenters who first and foremost thanked the help of the Puli's supporters. And not just the ones present but everybody in the Small Step Club whose names kept rolling in a background video. We also thanked our engineers and sponsors who care to spend their time, money and hands-on work on our project and most importantly, believe in us. We couldn't be there in Gödöllő without them. The best way to express our gratitude will be to keep on working - and never forgetting that the Moon is only the beginning.

After the presentations we formally introduced the actual assembly shop too before everybody engaged in informal conversations. There wasn't much to show actually, apart from some elements of the lander that had arrived just before but it was enough to excite our guests and the remainder of the evening had been filled with interesting topics and conversations.

The small Puli Space team created a space startup company in a world where it faces not only the solar wind but the negative streams of global economy too. However, we, along with a growing number of people, feel that we should be at the birth of this new space economy, forming from the general space industry. This evening reflects that a company, as far from the usual economic life as it may be, could indeed enlighten, lead and participate in the industry of the coming decades through innovation and knowledge. We're going to be there. And we invite everybody to join us on the way!

Ervin Nagy - translation by László Molnár

Images: Puli Space (Ervin Nagy & Mátyás Hazadi)