Space Business Podcast

This is my preview of what the year 2026 may hold for the Space sector - including in launch, lunar, space applications, science, government, finance, events, etc.

🕰️ Timestamps: 

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There has been a lot of recent talk about a potential SpaceX IPO. I sit down with Aaron Burnett, co-founder and CEO of Mach33, to discuss. Mach33 and Ark Invest collaborate on an open-sourced SpaceX financial model. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 

🔗 Mach33 website: https://www.33fg.com/

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Space lasers again! Odysseus Space from Luxembourg focuses on providing optical communications solutions between Space and Earth as a service. If you seem to notice that is not the first episode on optical communications, you’re right – I think this will be a potentially very big theme going forward. Our guest this week is Odysseus’ CEO & Co-Founder Jordan Vannitsen. Enjoy!

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Magma Space is a U.S. startup with advanced technology to help keep satellites stable / jitter-free, which is more important to satellite communications and remote sensing than you may realize. We have Magma's CEO & Co-Founder Alessandro Stabile as our guest to help explain.

🕰️ Timestamps: 

🔗 Magma Space

🏠Website :  https://www.magma-space.com/<...

Pixxel is a prominent earth observation startup originally from India and now present in the U.S., too. They are focused on so-called hyperspectral imaging. CEO & Co-Founder Awais Ahmed is our guest.

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How can you get real-time intelligence from space rapidly and cheaply? Novi Space is a startup from Virginia that uses its own hardware and on-orbit edge processing to do just that. Their CEO Michael Bartholomeusz is our guest this week.

🕰️ Timestamps: 

🔗 Novi Space

🏠Website :  https://www.novispace.ai

Cailabs is a French laser company and one thing they are doing are optical communications between Earth to Space. This has a number of advantages over radio frequency communications, which is why it is being adopted by customers, for example in defense. The company also just raised EUR57M. Founder & CEO JF Morizur is our guest.

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SatSure is an Earth intelligence company from India, processing satellite imagery to generate insights for various industry verticals. Co-founder and CEO Prateep Basu is our guest. Enjoy! 

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SPACE ROBOTS! We are are talking about this exciting topic again in this episode. Icarus Robotics is a NY-based space robotics start up that just raised its $6M seed financing round. Co-founders Ethan Barajas and Jamie Palmer are our guests. 

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Atomic-6 is an advanced composites solutions manufacturer providing products such as satellite solar arrays and Space Armor(TM), based in Atlanta. Founder & CEO Trevor Smith is our guest this week.

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Monitoring greenhouse gases, including from Space. That’s our topic this week. We therefore have another earth observation startup on the show as our guests: Airmo from Germany. They’re developing an innovative instrument including LiDAR to track greenhouse gases. Founder-CEO Daria Stepanova joins me to explain their technology and market in more detail. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 
00:00 Introduction
01:20 Elevator Pitch and Daria's Background
04:20 Airmo's Technology
07:12 Comparison with Existing Solutions
09:38 Customer Benefits
11:51 From Drones to Satellites
14:44 Potential Additional Applications
20:17 Evolution of Remote Sensing Technologies
20:32 LIDAR as a New Commercial Remote Sensing In...

Mini-brains in space. Did you know that we can study something called brain organoids, effectively mini-brains, in the special conditions in space, on the International Space Station, and that such studies may help us with diseases like Alzheimers, Autism or Parkinsons? My guest this week is Prof. Alysson Muotri from the University of California San Diego. He and his team have flown such brain organoids to the ISS many times already. Don’t miss this episode on what I consider one of the most exciting intersections of space and biology, and ultimately a potential source of massive positive impact ri...

How can we make operating in space safe & sustainable for everyone? Given the risks we face up there, like space debris and adversarial actors. This is where a company like Slingshot Aerospace comes in with its sensors, data, and insights derived from that data. My guest this week is their CEO, Tim Solms. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 
00:00 Intro
01:44 Elevator Pitch
01:53 Founders and Mission of Slingshot Aerospace
03:28 Challenges in Space Operations
04:18 Situational Awareness in Space
05:41 Slingshot's Sensor Network and Data Collection
14:21 Data Sharing and International Collaboration
19:50 Autonomous Operations and Future Prospects
24:23 Avoidi...

Space & Biology – we have another episode on this exciting intersection of deep tech themes. My guest this week is Paul Kamoun from SpacePharma. He also organizes an entire conference on space bio, called “Health from Space” every year. We talk about what use cases he finds most exciting, and the opportunities and challenges on the road to scaling space biology into the next big thing. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 
00:00 Intro
00:17 Background on Paul Kamoun & SpacePharma
01:18 The Exciting World of Space Biology
04:37 Understanding the Role of Gravity in Biology
08:38 Applications and Use Cases in Space Biology
...

Is the space sector actually financed in the right way? That’s probably the main question I’m discussing with my guest Justin Stevens, founder and CEO of the investment firm Overlap Holdings. He spent 18 years at Apollo Global Management, a very prominent private equity firm. So he’s a Wall Street guy like me and, I think, qualified to voice an opinion on this questions which we may not ask enough. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction 

01:08 - Guest Intro 

02:31 - Overlap Holdings Name Origin and Activities

03:43 - Capital Solutio...

My guest this week is Pierre Lionnet, Director of Research at Eurospace, who has followed the global space sector for over 30 years. We discuss a range of topics including e.g. SpaceX, the launch sector in general, and national space policies. Pierre is one of my favorite people to follow on space as he usually provides very frank and thought out opinions. I think this comes through in this episode - enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction 

00:55 - Guest Introduction

01:34 - Day-to-Day Activities at Eurospace

03:15 - Challenges in the Spac...

My guest this week is Sebastian Klaus, Co-Founder & CEO of Atmos Space Cargo, who discusses his company’s mission to unlock downmass logistics with an innovative and reusable space capsule, paving the way for in-space manufacturing, defense applications, and other applications.

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00:00 - Introduction

00:59 - Elevator Pitch

02:07 - Importance of Returning Cargo from Space

04:24 - Challenges and Technologies in Space Re-entry

06:16 - Innovations in Heat Shield Technology

11:16 - Economic Impact and Reusability

13:12 - Mission Operations and Logistics

20:15 - Regulatory Considerations

22:33...

My guest this week is Glen Martin, Co-Founder & CEO of Extraterrestrial Mining Company (XMC), discusses his company’s bold mission to mine Helium-3 on the Moon and its potential to revolutionize energy and tech on Earth.

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00:00 - Introduction 

01:36 - Elevator Pitch

03:42 - Understanding Helium-3 and Its Applications

11:59 - Tech Aspects of Lunar Mining

20:39 - Future Prospects and Initial Missions

23:31 - Energy Solutions for Lunar Operations

29:23 - Helium-3 Concentrations and Mining Challenges

32:09 - Lunar Data and Exploration Techniques

35:32...

This episode kicks off a new series on in-space R&D and manufacturing, exploring its potential (e.g. for sectors like pharma and semiconductors), its current status, and its challenges, among other topics.

At the end of this episode, Raphael highlights the recent launch of the Orbital Edge accelerator to support startups in this emerging sector.

Orbital Edge Accelerator: https://orbitaledge.techconnect.org/

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction 

02:23 - Why research and manufacture in Space?

10:28 - How to research and manufacture in Space, in practice?

22...

My guest this week is Adel Haddoud, Founder & CEO of Infinite Orbits, a French in-orbit servicing company. We discuss their technology, business model, and vision, as well as the broader market for satellite servicing and space sustainability. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:04 - Elevator Pitch 

03:30 - Origin Story

04:51 - Technological Innovations

07:35 - Core of the Company

09:15 - Computing Hardware in Space

12:47 - Market Segments and Competition

18:38 - Life Extension in Space

23:49 - Unit Economics 

26:13 - Life Extension and Docking<...

Asteroid mining is making a comeback. It may sound futuristic, but some startups are betting on a viable and economic path to making it a reality and investors are taking notice. One of those companies is Karman+, and this week, I’m joined by its Co-Founder, Daynan Crull. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:13 - Elevator Pitch

04:18 - Vision and Challenges of Asteroid Mining

06:07 - Recruitment and Team Building

07:44 - Origin Story and Motivation

12:35 - Market Timing and Investor Sentiment

19:49 - Technolog...

Space to Grow is a new book on the space economy. Its authors, Matt Weinzierl, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Brendan Rosseau, also formerly of Harvard and now in strategy at Blue Origin, are my guests this week. Enjoy!

Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier (Harvard Business Publishing, 2025)

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Grow-Unlocking-Economic-Frontier/dp/1647827167#:~:text=Book%20overview&text=An%20exploration%20of%20the%20dynamic,a%20commercial%20revolution%20right%20now.

🕰️ Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

05:16 - Building a Thriving Space Economy

09:15 - Government's Role in...

My guest this week is Stan Maximin, Founder & Executive Chairman of Latitude, a French micro-launch company. We discuss Latitude's rocket, target customers, and vision, as well as the wider launch market in Europe and globally. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:28 - Elevator Pitch

02:57 - Starting a Launch Company

11:20 - The Product

16:44 - Competitive Edge

25:30 - Design Decisions & Market Strategy

35:09 - Current Status & Future Milestones

40:30 - Challenges of First Orbital Launch

43:37 - French and European Competition

52:32 - Global...

Ariel Ekblaw is an MIT aero-astro engineer who founded the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, and developed a new technique to build large-scale space structures. She now runs the Aurelia Institute, a non-for-profit dedicated to building humanity’s future in space and the Aurelia Foundry, a space-focused VC fund. We talk about all of these things in this episode. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:47 - Ariel’s Background

06:07 - Self-Assembling Space Structures

10:44 - Applications of Space Real Estate

22:45 - Balancing Form and Function 

25:13 - Vision for...

Space Piracy is a new book about the prospect of organized crime in the space sector, anything ranging from hacking for ransom payments all the way to, some time in the future, actual piracy. The book’s co-authors, Marc Feldman and Hugh Taylor are my guests Enjoy!

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This is my preview of what the coming year 2025 may hold for the Space sector - including in launch, satcom, earth observation, lunar exploration, in-space manufacturing, science, government, finance, events, etc.

For the second half of the episode, fellow space investors Alexandra Vidyuk and Faraz Khan join me to provide their perspectives, in a roundtable format.

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:11 - 2025 Space Preview: Format and Caveats

03:31 - Launch Sector

08:56 - Space Hardware and Satellite Communications

11:35 - Lunar Missions and Human Spaceflight

14:37 - Space Manufacturing 

1...

Astroscale is a prominent space company from Japan, focused on a variety of on-orbit services incl. active space debris removal. My guest is their Group Chief Operating Officer, Chris Blackerby.

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:41 - Elevator Pitch

03:22 - On-Orbit Servicing Categories

06:53 - Core Competency of Astroscale: RPOD

09:00 - Tech Stack of current Mission

12:41 - Automated Space Operations and Safety

17:53 - Space Situational Awareness

20:46 - Space Debris

29:22 - Regulations

32:25 - What if we had a catastrophic event in orbi...

My guest this week: Mike Grace, Founder and CEO of Longshot Space. Longshot is developing a kinetic launch system, using a multi-injection gas-powered cannon to send payloads to orbit at significantly reduced costs. Mike explains the engineering behind the technology, its economic advantages, and the challenges of creating a system capable of high-velocity launches. 

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Countdown & podcast intro

02:04 - Elevator Pitch

03:37 - Mike’s Bold Pitching Style

05:58 - German heritage

08:46 - Gerald Bull and Project Harp

10:35 - More historical references

15:12 - Longshot Space's k...

My guest this week, Karthik Gollapudi, led the software team for SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. In this role, he realized the importance of monitoring complex hardware systems in order to detect faults or ideally prevent them before they even happen. That led him to become co-founder and CEO of Sift, a venture-funded startup dedicated to monitoring and analyzing hardware telemetry, and Sift is the topic of this week’s podcast. Enjoy!

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Integrate is a venture-backed startup from Seattle who are building a platform to facilitate teams collaborating on developing complex hardware, such as space hardware. Integrate’s co-founder & CEO John Conafay is here to talk about how this was done before Integrate, how Integrate aims to improve it, and many other things about the business. Enjoy!

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Spaceports should become a bigger business going forward if all goes well in the space sector and we will have ever more rockets launching from ever more locations. This is why some private companies are now getting into this market. One of them is Maritime Launch from Canada, who are developing a spaceport in Novia Scotia. My guest this week, Founder & CEO Stephen Matier, will tell us all about what it takes to build a spaceport, operate it, and much more. Enjoy!

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A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through? – That is the title of a book published in late 2023 which then became an instant NY Times bestseller and went on to win a 2024 Hugo Award. My guest this week is Kelly Weinersmith, one of its two authors, together with her husband. The book is a critical, and humorously written, examination of the question of whether humanity should settle space. It touches on everything ranging from legal aspects all the way to having babies in Space. For me as a di...

Open Cosmos is a prominent European new space startup providing and operating satellites. They recently won a EUR60MM contract to build a remote sensing constellation for the Greek government, beating out strong and established competitors. Their co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Jordi Barrera Ars is my guest. Enjoy!

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HEO, a space startup from Australia, uses sensors on-orbit to identify, characterize and monitor space objects at scale. Objects such as debris, but also active satellites. You can imagine there are a number of civil and defense use cases here. So-called Space Situational Awareness is a big topic these days. HEO’s founder & CEO Will Crowe is one of the best people to talk about it. Enjoy!

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Relativity Space, from Long Beach, California, is probably one the best-known launch startups in the world. They had a partially successful launch of their Terran One rocket last year, are now working towards the launch of the much larger Terran R, have 1200 employees and raised over $1bn in funding. My guest is their President & CFO Mo Shahzad and we talk about all things Relativity but also a little about the launch market in general. Enjoy!

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This week we are talking about KickSky, the first incubator for Indian space startups, which is having the demo day of its first cohort on 8-May. I am talking to Ankit Anand, Partner of Riceberg Ventures and a co-founder of KickSky. We talk about why the timing is right for an Indian space incubator, what the incubation program looks like, and many other things. For full disclosure, E2MC, the space venture fund where I am partner, is also part of KickSky. If you have any interest in Indian space, don’t miss this episode! 

If you are...

Johannes Torpe is a well-known Danish designer who, among many other things, was the Creative Director at Bang & Olufsen, and once owned a space-themed night club called NASA. He is passionate about what he calls “domesticating space” – bringing space closer to people at large, beyond the existing space community. We met at Spacecom in Orlando earlier this year and finally had a chance to schedule a podcast episode to talk about all this. Enjoy!

https://www.johannestorpe.com/

Golden space suit event: https://www.designindaba.com/videos/conference-talks/danish-designer-johannes-torpe-power-design-create-universes

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PLD Space is a Spanish launch startup. Last October, they successfully completed a suborbital test flight of their Miura-1 rocket. We talk about that flight, their future plans on the way to orbital launch, the launch market at large, and many other things, with my guest, PLD’s CFO, José Manuel Rodríguez. Enjoy!

https://www.pldspace.com/en/

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Space Ambition is a very popular space blog on Substack, with over 11000 subscribers. Its founder Alexandra Vidyuk is our guest this week. She is also a space tech investor at Aloniq VC. We talk about both of her roles. Enjoy!

Space ambition blog: https://spaceambition.substack.com/

Aloniq VC: https://www.aloniq.com/

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Inflatable space modules is what we are talking about in this episode, and that is Max Space’s product, a company that just came out more publicly at Space Symposium. My guest for the episode is CEO & co-founder Aaron Kemmer, who some of you may remember from his previous role as a co-founder of the in-space manufacturing company Made in Space. Aaron and I talk about his motivation to set up Max Space, and how their inflatables can be used for example as habitats, research labs, manufacturing sites and even as sports and entertainment venues in space.

Fo...

We are talking about the space job market in this episode. My guests are Seyka and Brian Mejeur, the founders of AdAstra, a space talent advisory or headhunting firm. Besides talking about the trends in the space job market in general, we also discuss some advice specifically for job candidates and for space founders. Make sure to listen in!

AdAstra website:

https://adastra.us/

Legacy vs. Startup Talent - article by Brian Mejeur:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/legacy-vs-startup-talent-brian-mejeur-apu2c/?trackingId=cxpwmH5ndwd5B9AjK0yI4w%3D%3D

...

We are back talking about Earth observation. Specifically about how to make accessing and using EO data user-friendly. Our guest this week is Luke Fischer, co-founder & CEO of Sky-Fi, an Austin-based startup that is essentially an EO market place and app store. Luke tells us all about SkyFi and his view on the state of EO in general. Enjoy!

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Two words: space robotics. Gitai, founded in Japan and now headquartered in the U.S. wants to significantly bring down the cost of labor in space -in orbit, on space stations, on the Moon, even on Mars- with its robotic technology. My guest is Gitai’s founder & CEO, Sho Nakanose.

Gitai website (incl. careers): https://gitai.tech/

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This is our annual preview episode, about some of the key things which may happen in the space sector in 2024.

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In-space manufacturing is what we are discussing in this episode, and we have a really cool and qualified guest: Jessica Frick is a researcher at Stanford’s XLab, the extreme environment microsystems lab. They recently held a workshop on semiconductor manufacturing in microgravity, just published a white paper about it (linked below), and are now setting up an institute focused on manufacturing advanced materials in microgravity. Enjoy!

The Institute for In-Space Manufacturing of Advanced Materials

https://rb.gy/b4661j

White paper: Semiconductor Manufacturing in Low-Earth Orbit for Terrestrial Use

https://os...

Satellite IoT, or internet of things – we have another episode on this topic. Which devices or machines can we connect via satellite communications, how and why? Our guest is Omar Qaise, the founder & CEO of Luxembourg-based OQ Technology, a prominent satellite IoT startup that has already several satellites in orbit. Enjoy!

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Space & bio – we finally have the 2nd episode in our subseries on this topic. Dorit Donoviel is the Director of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health. TRISH is an institute that is cooperating with NASA and conducting a fascinating range of research regarding human health in space. Our discussion touches on many topics, ranging from challenges to human physiology in microgravity all the way to the question of whether we can use gene editing to adapt ourselves to the space environment. Enjoy!

SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity"...

Light sails – really thin sails that are propelled by photons flying around in space – have been proposed as an alternative propulsion method to travel the cosmos for a long time. Now, there is a startup company in France working to commercialize them. Their co-founder & CEO, Andrew Nutter, is our guest this week. Enjoy!

SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

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The ground segment for satellites is obviously an important part of the space ecosystem. Giovanni Pandolfi is a co-founder of LeafSpace, one of the prominent startups in this field.  https://leaf.space/

Enjoy!

SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

Follow us:

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India's space sector is really blasting off (pun intended!). Among other things, the country just became only the fourth one to soft land on the Moon. So it's only fitting that we'll have more Indian space companies and people as guests. Our first one is Tushar Jadhav, founder and CEO of Manastu Space, a propulsion startup from Mumbai that recently announced a $3MM financing round (for full disclosure, E2MC, the space VC fund where Raphael is a partner, is an investor in that round). Please enjoy hearing about Manastu and space in India!

SPACE ECONOMY BOOK...

My guest this week is Loren Grush. You may know her already as a space journalist, currently at Bloomberg and previously at The Verge. She also just published a book: “The Six” is telling the story of America’s first women astronauts - and that is what we’re talking about in this episode. Enjoy!

Loren's book "The Six": https://www.simonandschuster.biz/books/The-Six/Loren-Grush/9781982172800

SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebus...

Our guest this week is building a lunar rover. Jaret Matthews is the CEO & Founder of Astrolab, based in Hawthorne, CA. He was previously at SpaceX and also at JPL, where he worked on Mars rovers. Come join us to hear all about planetary rovers!  https://astrolab.space/

SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

Follow us:

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LinkedIn...

Space Traffic Management continues to be a hot topic as we keep on hearing about companies like SpaceX having to execute large numbers of collision avoidance maneuvers.  Portugal-based Neuraspace is focused on this and has raised a significant amount of money already to build their AI-based platform. COO Chiara Manfletti is our guest this week. Enjoy!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

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Alcohol in Space 🍸 – that is actually the title of an existing book, written by Chris Carberry, who is also the CEO of Explore Mars. Chris is our guest this week and we’re talking about everything alcohol in space – from the history of liquor consumption in space, over its effects in microgravity, all the way to what kind of drinks we may produce in space in the future. Cheers & enjoy!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://s...

Do you want to send your DNA to space - to orbit, or to the Moon? You can already do that: LifeShip is a California-based startup offering that service. They have already sold thousands of their kits. Hear about their story from founder Ben Haldeman, who was also an early employee at Planet, the well-known Eartly observation company. Enjoy!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

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Big satellites, REALLY big satellites – for the age of Starship. That is what our guest company this week is working on – K2 Space from Long Beach, CA - and they just raised an $8.5MM seed round. I talk to their co-founder Karan Kunjur about their satellite platform, its potential use cases, and much more. Enjoy!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

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Sex in Space – I feel like I don’t need to say anything else about this episode. But jokes aside – besides sexual health being an important issue on long duration space missions in general, one important topic is the question of reproduction in space. We touch upon these topics and more in my conversation with Simon Dubé, a post-doctoral researcher at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University on the topic of space sexology. Enjoy!

Relevant article: 

"Sexual Health in Space: a 5-year Scoping Review" -https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-023-00368-9
"Technology-Based Sexualit...

We finally have a space startup from Asia (excl. Middle East) on the podcast. Many of you probably did not know that there is a late-stage space startup in Thailand. Mu Space is a Series C stage company manufacturing smallsats and their components. I caught up with their founder & CEO James Yenbamroong in person at the Mu Space headquarter office when I passed through Bangkok this week. Enjoy!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

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Impulse Space is a new startup focused on space logistics, including last-mile payload delivery. The company has a first mission scheduled for fall this year, and also announced a private Mission to Mars jointly with Relativity last year. We touch upon all of this and a lot more in my conversation with their COO Barry Matsumori. Enjoy!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

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Greg Autry has worn many leadership hats in the space sector. He is currently the Clinical Professor & Director of the Space Leadership, Policy and Business Program at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He was a presidential nominee (as CFO) at NASA and continues to hold roles at the agency. He was also chair of the FAA’s COMSTAC Safety Working Group. Our conversation ranges from space entrepreneurship over space safety to geopolitics in space. I think you’ll really enjoy this one. I did!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infi...

Establishing a human presence in the Venusian atmosphere and setting up a venture studio to help get us there? You bet. Founder and Chairman of Humans2Venus, Guillermo Söhnlein, is our guest this week.

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

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Episode 100 will give you a review & preview of the Space Business Podcast, incl. favorite sci-fi of our guests!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

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Nuclear fusion propulsion. Do I have your attention? Probably ... after all, we need to get to places like Mars, and beyond, faster than on the current chemical rockets. There are now actually some startups working on nuclear fusion propulsion and one of them, Princeton Satellite Systems, are our guests this week. Enjoy!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

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My guest this week is Jesse Klempner, a partner in McKinsey’s Washington DC office. McKinsey is focusing more on space recently and has published a number of interesting articles (see below for some examples). We discuss why McKinsey is paying more attention to space now and how corporates can and do work with space, among other topics. Enjoy!

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

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Space Biotech - this is the first episode in a new sub-series of episodes just on this topic. Ken Savin is the Chief Scientific Officer of Redwire, the American space holding company. Before that, he worked at the U.S. National Lab and for a long time in the pharma industry.

JUST OUT: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO

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Software for satellites. We are overdue to talk about it – it’s important and it could be a big business opportunity, for reasons you’ll hear about in this episode. My guest is Alvaro Alonso Ruiz, co-founder of the French startup Leanspace who raised a EUR6MM seed round last year. Enjoy!

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Space in Israel! My guest is Uri Oron, the Director General of the Israel Space Agency. We talk about various aspects of the Israeli space ecosystem, including what "infrastructure" is required to build it out successfully. Enjoy!

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Asteroid mining – do I really need to say anything else to get you excited and curious about listening to this episode? My guest is Matt Gialich, the co-founder and CEO of AstroForge, an LA-based startup. Over a decade on from when the last asteroid mining companies started, AstroForge successfully raised a sizable seed round last year. Asteroid mining is back - hear all about it in this episode, enjoy!

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Nima Shahinian is a Norwegian industrial designer planning on going to space, and he has already started some of the training, which he will tell us about. He has now even put together a whole project and team in Norway that is working on taking a group of people to space, including several candidates with disabilities. Hear all of about it in this episode – and, since he is a designer, we also talk about space design! Enjoy!

Nima's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astro_nims/

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How about accessing space not with rockets, but with basically a big gun that shoots stuff into space? You may be surprised to hear that that is actually not a new idea. Our guests this week, the founders of a startup called Wave Motion are working on an updated version of it. Unsurprisingly, there is strong dual use element, too. We’ll talk about all that and more in the episode. Enjoy!

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This is our second conversation with a crew member of the dearMoon project. Just as a reminder, dearMoon will be a circumlunar Starship mission, to which Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku "MZ" Maezawa has invited 8 artists to join him. One of those lucky 8 is the photographer, filmmaker and whale swimming guide Karim Iliya. We talk about his expectations and objectives for the mission. Enjoy!

https://karimiliya.com/

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Did you ever wonder what the experience of flying on Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocket is like? I certainly have. So I invited one of their recent crew members, Victor Hespanha from Brazil, onto the podcast. He takes us through the entire experience -before, during, and after the flight- in great detail. You get a good sense of what the experience is like, so don’t miss it! Please do note that English is not Victor’s first language and he is currently still learning it. He was incredibly kind to speak to us anyway and get out of...

Daniel Bock and Istvan Lőrincz are the co-founders of Morpheus Space, an innovative electric propulsion company based in Germany and the U.S. I met them for the first time at IAC in 2019 when they won the pitch competition and since then they have done really well, including announcing a US$28 million Series A last September. Please enjoy listening to them talk about their technology and their entrepreneurial journey!

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This is our annual preview of some of the things to watch out for in the space sector in 2023!

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I’m guessing many if not most of you are aware of the dearMoon project. Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa, or MZ, is inviting 8 artists to join him on a circumlunar flight on Starship. One of the 8 selected crew is American documentary filmmaker Brendan Hall. He is our guest on this episode and we discuss everything from his motivation to apply, over the selection process, to his objectives for the mission, and even some of the things he may take along. dearMoon has everyting to be one of the most fascinating human spaceflight missions ever and this episode is our fi...

Casey Handmer writes a blog that many of you may already read called, well, Casey Handmer's blog. His posts regularly explore fascinating space topics such as e.g. explaining misconceptions about Starship or how to terraform Mars. We could not possibly do justice to the wealth of topics he’s written about in one podcast episode, but we are talking somewhat of a whirlwind tour through some of his best known posts on space. I think you’ll really enjoy it!

https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/

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Dan Katz is the co-founder and CEO of Orbital Sidekick, a San Francisco-based company deploying a constellation of hyperspectral remote sensing satellites. Among other things, I talk to Dan about the capabilities and use cases of this exciting technology. Enjoy!

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Egbert Jan van der Veen is the head of strategy of well-known, publicly-listed German space company OHB. He’s also the head of their corporate venture capital arm, which has invested in a number of well-known space companies, including some that have been on this podcast. So he has a really good view of the space sector in general and also specifically about space startups. Enjoy!

Btw, happy Thanksgivings holiday to our many listeners in the U.S.!

Our guest this week is Jaume Sanpera, CEO & founder of Sateliot, a Barcelona-based startup providing IOT connectivity from space. IOT is an interesting market which various startups (and established companies) are tackling and we discuss current and future use cases, what technology Sateliot uses, how it is executing its go-to-market, and many other things. You will not want to miss this one. Enjoy!

Sateliot's job board: https://sateliot.space/en/careers/

The English version of Raphael's introductory book to the space economy will be out very soon. There continue to be the Portuguese ("Para cima"...

The English version of my introductory book to the space economy is finally about to come out. In this special episode, I read the introductory chapter for you.

The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.

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My guest Ole Dokka probably knows the Norwegian space ecosystem like nobody else. He is the organizer of the Spaceport Norway conference, which will take place in Oslo next week. We talk about what is going on in space in Norway, including the Andøya spaceport, and of course also about the conference. Enjoy!

In this episode we talk about predicting extreme weather, timely (if not planned!) given hurricane Ian -- by the way, we hope you are all safe & sound!
Dan Harkins, the COO of Tropical Weather Analytics will tell us about extreme weather and how their proposed satellite constellation may help us predict it. 

My guest this week is Austin Link, a co-founder of Starfish Space. Starfish develops a space tug that can be used for satellite life extension and space debris removal. Austin and his co-founder Trevor both came out of Blue Origin and are now well on their way at Starfish, which raised a seed round last year. Please enjoy listening to their story.   https://www.starfishspace.com/   Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy: Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join th...

This episode is with a guest who I wanted to have on for a while. Avi Loeb is a Professor of Science at Harvard and was the chair of its astronomy department from 2011 to 2020. He has written 8 books, including the best-seller “Extraterrestrial”, and hundreds of research papers. Among many other things, he is well-known for his views on the Oumuamua interstellar object, and he now heads the Galileo project, which is looking for further such objects. One of his upcoming projects is an expedition to try to retrieve fragments of another interstellar object from the ocean floor. If all this wasn...

This week we talk about military space. The military has been part of space exploration since the beginning, and it continues to be very important, including as a major customer of, and even occasional investor in, commercial space companies. So it makes sense that we spend some time talking about military space in this podcast. I suspect there will be several episodes on this topic, but my first guest, in this episode, is Professor Bleddyn Bowen from the University of Leicester. He has literally written the book on military space, aptly called “War in Space” and will soon publish anot...

My guest this week is the CEO and founder of Phantom Space, Jim Cantrell. Having started at JPL, Jim is also a decades-long veteran of commercial space. He has been involved in around a dozen space startups, including SpaceX in its early days. There are probably few people who have been around the commercial space sector as much as he has, so we do not only talk about Phantom but about the space economy in general. Enjoy!

My guest this week is the President of Portugal Space, the Portuguese Space Agency, Ricardo Conde. Portugal Space was only recently formed, in 2019. Ricardo and I talk about that experience of founding a new national space agency and dive into some of their marquis projects, including in the remote sensing value chain and the Santa Maria Spaceport in the Azores Islands. We also talk about the space economy in general and how a country like Portugal can add specific value. A quick heads up: this episode was live recorded in Ricardo’s offices and there is some background noise from th...

My guest this week is Bessie Schwarz from Cloud to Street, a company that uses satellite imagery, and other data, to come up with better flood models for customers like governments and insurance companies. Hence, it is an example of the use of space technology for something useful right here on Earth, which is one of our favorite topics!   Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy: Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy Raphael is designing a new, live-taught course. Join the mailing list to get updates and early access: https://j...

Raphael reviews what has happened so far in the space sector in 2022 and what some of the exciting things are that may happen during the rest of the year.   JWST images: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/   Space Perspective capsule: https://www.space.com/space-perspective-capsule-balloon-tourist-flights   Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy: Check out the new edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy Raphael is designing a new, live-taught course. Join the mailing list to get updates and early access: https://jfx8zhjodpz.typeform.com/to/t0VSuhVD Raphael's introductory book on the space economy rec...

This week I’m talking to Sita Sonty, who is Boston Consulting Group’s global lead for commercial space. She also previously worked at Raytheon, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX, besides being a U.S. diplomat for many years. She is one of the most interesting people I know and I am also happy to have her as an advisor at my venture firm E2MC. Enjoy our conversation!

We are talking about the future of the space economy as well as geopolitics and exo-politics in this episode (exo-politiics would be politics off-Earth!). I could not have a better guest for these topics:  Dr. Pippa Malmgren is a renowned economist who has, among many other roles, advised President George W Bush. She recently published a couple of articles about space on her Substack. Our conversation spans everything – from Ukraine over space-based solar power all the way to aliens. You will not want to miss it. Enjoy!

Link to Dr. Pippa Malmgren's Substack: https://drpippa.substack.com/

My guest this week is the founder & CEO of another prominent new space company – Payam Banazadeh from Capella Space. Capella is a remote sensing company that is using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology. Don’t worry – we will explain what SAR is during the episode. The important summary: it allows you to see at night and through cloud cover. You can imagine that has interesting and important use cases. Payam will take us through those and many other things about Capella. Enjoy!

Capella's job board: https://www.capellaspace.com/about-us/careers/

It’s another fun episode this week as I sit down with Alex Fielding, co-founder and CEO of Privateer. You may have heard about Privateer when it first emerged last year, with few details about it, but intriguingly having Apple co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak as its President and co-founder. Earlier this year, Privateer came further out of stealth and we learned that, among other things, they are doing space situational awareness … and got a sponsorship from Swiss watchmaker Omega!  But there is so much more to the story. Listen to the episode to find out. Full disclosure: my venture fund E2MC...

My guest is Shey Sabripour, the founder and CEO of CesiumAstro, a prominent late stage startup in the satellite communications area. Specifically, they design and build phased array communications systems, actually not only for satellites but also for aerial platforms like drones. You may now wonder what phased array is, but don’t worry, Shey explains it in the episode. In any event, it’s important tech, as also evidenced by the fact that CesiumAstro managed to raise a US$60 million Series B round a couple of months ago.

Our guests this week are Ian Fichtenbaum and Chris Carpenter from Bradford Space. Bradford has been around for a while and their systems, such as propulsion and attitude control, have gathered quite a bit of space heritage already. Now they have an exciting new project. Hear about it in this episode!

I have an Easter / Passover / Ramadan treat for you: my guest this week is none other than Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut. Among his many accomplishments are being the first Canadian to conduct EVA (colloquially a ‘spacewalk’) and also the first Canadian to serve as Commander of the Int’l Space Station. Besides that, he is also a musician and a writer, who recently published a thrilling novel called ‘The Apollo Murders’. We talk about all of this during this episode – you will not want to miss it. Enjoy & happy holidays!

In this episode we are talking about analyzing satellite imagery for interesting use cases here on Earth. Our guest is Jakub Dziwisz from the startup Orbify. Their platform aims to make it really easy to deploy apps that take advantage of satellite imagery for use cases such as tracking deforestation and many others.

New Space Economy MOOC: https://space4impact.org/new-space-economy-mooc/

Future course early save-the-spot:  https://jfx8zhjodpz.typeform.com/to/t0VSuhVD

The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.

Follow the podcast on Twitter @podcast_space

We are talking about space sustainability this week. I sat down with an expert in the topic, Ian Christensen from the Secure World Foundation. A lot of the conversation is about space debris, but we also talk about some other interesting topics. Check it out.

The Space Business Podcast...

Our guest this week wears many hats in the space sector, but we will focus on one of them. After having been an early employee at SpaceX, Bulent Altan is now the CEO of Mynaric, a laser communications company. Space Lasers? Trust me, it is as cool as it sounds, both from a technology as well as business potential perspective. I share Bulent’s view that optical is the future of communications. Find out why in this episode.