SAN FRANCISCO – Halo Space, Eos X Space Technologies Corp. and Arthur D. Little Spain were indicted Oct. 31 in Madrid on charges of illegal discovery of the trade secrets of Spanish high-altitude balloon company Zero 2 Infinity.
The case stems from Zero 2 Infinity’s allegations that the people and organizations the corporate hired to lift money for its space tourism business used funds obtained from investors to determine two competing businesses based on Zero 2 Infinity’s mental property.
After asking for extensive documentation to share with potential investors, the individuals and organizations indicted “modified the emblem within the presentations and managed to lift 1 million euros for an organization that was just an internet site with some” computer generated imagery, Jose Mariano Lopez-Urdiales, Zero 2 Infinity founder and CEO, told . “They thought they might do this because Zero 2 Infinity was in financial distress, partly because we were expecting that 1 million euros to reach.”
Halo Space denied the costs. Halo Space “is able to take all legal actions available to defend Halo from false accusations,” the Spanish company said in a press release“Space tourism to the stratosphere is predicated on aerospace technologies developed and tested for greater than 60 years, akin to stratospheric balloons, pressurized capsules and parachutes for descent and landing. Besides HALO Space, all the businesses working on the event of space tourism systems to the stratosphere in america, France, and Japan are using those mature technologies, all developed a long time before Zero 2 Infinity was created.”
What’s more, “Zero 2 Infinity has never had any contractual relationship with Halo Space or Arthur D Little,” in keeping with the emailed statement.
Kamal Kharbachi Jader, Eos-X Space founder and chairman, didn’t reply to a request for comment.
Arthur D. Little Spain and Carlos Mira Martin, former Arthur D. Little Spain president and Halo Space founder and CEO, didn’t reply to requests for comment.
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Indictment
The Oct. 31 indictment charges the next individuals and organizations with disclosure of trade secrets under article 277 of Spanish Criminal Law: Arthur D. Little, S.L.; Carlos Mira Martin; Ignacio Alberto Garcia Alves, Arthur D. Little global CEO; Kamal Kharbachi Jader, Eos-X Space founder and chairman and IT Holding Enterprise Capital founder and CEO; Luis Angel Delgado Corral, Arthur D. Little Spain finance director; Eos X Space Technologies Corp., S.L.; Eos X Space-Ship Company, S.L.; Halo Space, S.L.; and IT Capital Holding, S.L.
The law in query carries potential penalties “of imprisonment from three to 5 years” if the secrets in query were “disseminated, revealed, or transferred to 3rd parties” along with fines, Spanish attorney Leonardo López Marcos, co-founder of the International Legal Center for Space Sustainability, said by email.
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Financing Difficulty
Lopez-Urdiales established Zero 2 Infinity in 2009. The concept stemmed from his paper published on the 2002 International Astronautical Congress in Houston, “The Role of Balloons in Future Development of Space Tourism,” and his patent for a pressurized pod for hosting passenger on journeys to and from space or near-space granted by the European Patent Office.
In its first decade, Zero 2 Infinity made technical progress developing a launch vehicle for small satellites using a helium balloon as the primary stage. The corporate also was working on Bloon, a balloon to lift space tourists and payloads to an altitude of 36 kilometers. In 2017, Zero 2 Infinity accomplished its first test flight, deploying a prototype of a small satellite launcher.
Financing the enterprise proved difficult, though.
“It is a common problem on this sector,” Lopez-Urdiales said. “Unfortunately, sometimes technical founders are usually not so good at fundraising.”
In an try and solve the issue, Lopez-Urdiales signed agreements with people he believed would help Zero 2 Infinity attract investment.
“The agreement was quite simple,” Lopez-Urdiales said. “They fundraise for us, and so they keep 10 percent of whatever sums they raise.”
Within the nondisclosure agreement Zero 2 Infinity signed with Arthur D. Little Spain, each signatory agreed “not to make use of the confidential information for its own profit, as access to the confidential information is permitted for the only real and exclusive purpose of collaboration between the parties.”
An agreement Zero 2 Infinity signed with Agora Next, a firm Kharbachi leads as founder and CEO, called on parties “to respect the strictest confidentiality with respect to any information and/or documentation that’s of a confidential nature” and never to “accept similar orders that might conflict with the interests of” Zero 2 Infinity.
Once the agreements were signed, Zero 2 Infinity shared extensive documentation including pricing plans, lists of suppliers and PowerPoints presentations.
“We gave them access to those secrets for the only real purpose of fundraising for us,” Lopez-Urdiales said. “We claim that they used that information to fundraise for a few competing firms that they created (EOS first and Halo second) and that ostensibly are almost an identical to what we shared with them.”
Zero 2 Infinity timeline
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EOS and Halo Fight
Zero 2 Infinity alleges that Kharbachi raised $1 million for its space tourism project, but transferring the funds to Eos-X, an area tourism company based in Madrid. Eos-X, established in 2020, guarantees balloon flights to lift passengers to “37km of altitude, where there may be nothing but blackness of space and the blue halo of earth,” on LinkedIn.
The Eos-X project was supported initially by Arthur D. Little Spain.
In 2021, Carlos Mira, then president of Arthur D. Little Spain, established Halo Space, a balloon space tourism company offering “zero-emission business flights of 25-40 km altitude allowing to see the curvature of the planet Earth for 4-6 hours,” in keeping with LinkedIn.
Arthur D. Little sued Eos-X in 2023 in civil court in Madrid for using its logo after the 2 firms stopped working together. Eos-X then sued Halo Space, charging intimidation and attempting to take over its business, in keeping with an article within the Spanish business and finance newspaper .
Delicate Financial Situation
Zero 2 Infinity stays in business.
“Financially, we’re in a really delicate situation, but we’re as convinced as ever that what we propose makes a ton of sense,” Lopez-Urdiales said.
Halo Space Status
Halo Space, meanwhile, has carried out five test flights. In the course of the most up-to-date flights conducted in September in California’s Mojave Desert, Halo Space tested descent and landing with “a paraglider-type steerable parachute,” in keeping with a Sept. 25 news release.
“This major step forward in the event of this system will allow the corporate to maneuver from design to manufacturing, and further advance the test flight plan for 2023 and 2024,” the Halo Space news release said.
Halo Space plans to start business operations in 2025, charging customers 150,000 euros ($160,255) per ticket.