News Briefs: Cool Clyde, UrtheCast Layoffs & Chinese Megascope

Clyde Stays Cool: While many in the United Kingdom are (figuratively) losing their heads over Brexit, smallsat maker Clyde Space of Scotland is taking the vote to leave the European Union in stride.

“We really don’t do that much business in Europe,” CEO Craig Clark said. “Our first contracts were in Asia, Japan, South Africa and the U.S. and it actually took us a few years to get a contract in the EU. We will be relatively unaffected by this.”

UrtheCast Lays Off Staff: UrtheCast laid off a dozen employees in San Francisco and gave three others the option of working from home as the company consolidated operations at its headquarters in Vacouver, B.C.

The company had about 250 employees before the layoffs.

China Completes Mega Telescope: China has completed the world’s largest radio telescope, which is called the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). The telescope, which has 4,450 panels on it, will search for signs of alien life.