Balerion Senior Associate Aidan Daoussis sits down with Rahul Shirke, Founder & CEO of Arceon, to discuss advanced composites for space and defense. Arceon develops ceramic matrix composite components for extreme environments, including rocket nozzles, heat shields, leading edges, and hypersonic aeroshells. The company is focused on faster, scalable production of high-temperature materials for space and defense applications.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – Introduction and Arceon company overview

02:34 – Rahul Shirke’s background and the founding of Arceon

03:49 – Extreme environments in solid rocket motors and hypersonics

05:32 – How advanced materials simplify high-temperature systems

06:28 – Arceon’s manufacturing process from polymer composite to ceramic matrix composite

09:37 – Technical differentiation and faster production timelines

11:05 – Company milestones, space projects, and defense qualification

12:03 – Changes in the European space and defense ecosystem

15:06 – Customer drivers: scale, weight reduction, reusability, and manufacturability

16:32 – Comparison with Inconel and other high-temperature metals

19:59 – Carbon fiber, proprietary resin, silicon infiltration, and damage tolerance

22:29 – Static fire testing, AFRL testing, and nozzle extension development

25:03 – Fundraising, government support, and scaling challenges in Europe

27:04 – Demand split between defense and commercial space

28:07 – Future implications for lunar infrastructure and hypersonic systems

34:00 – Near-term milestones in heat shields, nozzle extensions, and defense production

36:38 – Why scalable materials production may now be venture-backable

39:28 – Process know-how, reproducibility, and barriers to copying Arceon

43:47 – Why advanced materials matter across space, defense, semiconductors, and nuclear

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