Eye of the Dragon

Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Jakub Lajmon, Co-Founder & CEO of Groundcom, to discuss scalable ground-station infrastructure. Groundcom manufactures and operates globally distributed ground stations designed to give satellite operators more frequent access to spacecraft and faster delivery of orbital data. The company combines its own antenna hardware with cloud-based network orchestration and also supplies dedicated ground-station infrastructure to customers building their own networks.

00:00 – Introduction and Groundcom’s role in satellite connectivity

02:33 – Jakub’s software background and path into the space industry

05:16 – How satellite operators plan and secure ground-station access

09:01 – Ground-station architecture, global coverage, and remote operation

12:14 – Capacity limits, parabolic dishes, and phased-array technology

15:15 – Founding Groundcom during COVID and validating the market

17:48 – Scaling ground infrastructure alongside growing LEO constellations

22:18 – Hardware design for higher data rates and evolving mission requirements

24:35 – Space-based data centers, optical communications, and RF redundancy

28:37 – Groundcom’s position within the changing European space market

30:20 – Designing autonomous ground stations for rapid deployment

34:05 – Operational challenges, recurring revenue, and building the team

37:42 – Europe’s startup ecosystem and the importance of speed and iteration

40:46 – Sovereignty, global infrastructure, licensing, and regional partnerships

44:27 – Investor and customer misconceptions about ground-station networks

48:18 – Closing thoughts on speed, agility, and continuous iteration

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Misha Rudominski, Co-Founder & CEO of HIMERA, to discuss resilient battlefield communications. HIMERA develops tactical radios, repeaters, and embedded communication systems designed to maintain voice and data links in contested electronic-warfare environments. The company has built its systems through continuous deployment and iteration with Ukrainian defense forces, with applications spanning soldiers, UAVs, UGVs, sensors, and distributed battlefield networks.

00:00 – Introduction and HIMERA’s approach to resilient battlefield communications

04:08 – Founding HIMERA during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine

06:08 – Tactical radios, autonomous repeaters, and battlefield network architecture

10:19 – How modern warfare is diverging from traditional military doctrine

17:47 – Why Ukrainian defense companies can develop and deploy systems so quickly

24:30 – What “combat proven” and “deployed” actually mean in Ukraine

30:08 – Building hardware around continuous operator feedback and rapid iteration

36:21 – The evolution of drone warfare and the continuing role of human operators

41:10 – Connecting soldiers, UAVs, UGVs, sensors, and software at the tactical edge

45:13 – HIMERA’s roadmap and building military trust from the ground up50:03 – Why defense companies must prioritize the operators using their systems

52:29 – Closing thoughts on defense technology as a mission-driven business

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Grant Jordan, Founder & CEO of SkySafe, to discuss drone tracking and airspace awareness. SkySafe builds persistent sensor networks across cities to detect, identify, and track drone activity for government, public safety, critical infrastructure, and commercial customers. Its platform combines RF sensing and networked data to distinguish authorized activity from potential threats and provide a foundational awareness layer for increasingly crowded airspace.

00:00 – Introduction and overview of SkySafe’s drone tracking and airspace awareness platform

02:39 – Drone threats beyond explosives, including surveillance and prison smuggling

07:44 – Detecting, identifying, and responding to unauthorized drone activity

11:48 – Drone swarms, battlefield developments, and today’s operational realities

13:42 – Airspace coordination, electronic conspicuity, and safely integrating drones with manned aviation

16:58 – SkySafe’s citywide sensor network and infrastructure model

20:01 – Building a foundational airspace data layer through APIs and platform integrations

21:15 – Detection challenges in RF-denied environments and the evolution of drone technology

25:20 – Autonomy, stealth, surveillance, and common misconceptions about drone security

29:26 – RF sensing, radar, optical, and acoustic detection trade-offs

33:34 – Government, commercial, critical infrastructure, and public safety customers

36:28 – Difficult detection environments and the importance of sensor placement

39:32 – Counter-UAS options and the trade-offs of jamming, interception, and kinetic response

42:46 – Deterrence, operator accountability, and enforcing drone regulations

46:06 – Risk reduction, incident response, and post-event drone forensics

48:12 – Commercial uses of drones, SkySafe’s impact, and closing takeaways

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Troy Morris, Co-Founder & CEO of KMI Space, to discuss orbital logistics and satellite servicing. KMI is developing spacecraft and robotic capture systems designed to grapple, relocate, service, and remove objects in orbit. Its REACH end effector uses biomimetic tentacles and adhesion technology that the company demonstrated aboard the International Space Station through 172 capture cycles.

00:00 – Introduction to KMI Space and the “tow trucks for space” concept02:47 – Biomimicry, gecko adhesion, and the REACH robotic capture system04:54 – Demonstrating autonomous capture technology aboard the International Space Station06:51 – Moving beyond debris removal toward satellite servicing and orbital logistics10:53 – KMI’s founding story and the emergence of an in-space logistics market15:00 – Comparing tentacles with robotic arms, nets, harpoons, magnets, and other capture approaches19:23 – Lessons from 172 ISS capture cycles and testing REACH in microgravity23:37 – What happens after capture: relocation, controlled reentry, and satellite repositioning26:00 – National security applications and the risks of adversarial spacecraft maneuvering29:08 – KMI’s technical moat, software, trade secrets, and barriers to replication31:44 – Commercial demand, satellite failures, liability, and extending spacecraft life33:51 – Returning spacecraft to Earth versus recycling and reusing materials in orbit37:09 – In-space manufacturing, assembly, and a future orbital logistics infrastructure39:22 – Scaling launch and reentry activity and potential new markets enabled by space access43:04 – Orbital debris, commercial servicing demand, and preventing cascading collisions47:15 – Kessler syndrome, KMI’s early research, and the long-term sustainability of orbital space

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Ben Schafer, Co-Founder & CEO of Rarefied Technologies, to discuss photophoretic flight in the mesosphere. Rarefied is developing ultralight structures that absorb light and convert it into heat, creating thrust through interactions with gas molecules in the rarefied upper atmosphere. The company is targeting the largely inaccessible 50–100 kilometer altitude range for applications including atmospheric sensing, space weather data, communications, and defense.

00:00 – Introduction and Rarefied Technologies overview01:30 – Photophoretic propulsion and the physics behind light-driven flight03:00 – Founder background, Harvard research, and the company’s spinout05:31 – Customers, data-as-a-service, and potential commercialization models06:54 – R&D milestones, technical risks, and the path to a field demonstration10:16 – MEMS steering, phased arrays, and laser-based station keeping13:36 – Propulsion context, planetary applications, and payload limitations17:04 – Common misconceptions and the 50–100 kilometer mesosphere operating range20:55 – Materials science, communications infrastructure, and vehicle stability24:08 – Strategic significance for sensing, communications, and defense applications27:32 – Space weather as the beachhead market and likely early customers29:44 – Balloon and rocket deployment pathways, including NASA programs31:35 – Founder lessons, customer discovery, and identifying the right market34:02 – Space weather risk, telecommunications potential, vehicle lifetime, and payload scaling43:03 – Laser communications, Arctic applications, infrastructure requirements, and closing takeaways

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Alessandro Stabile, Founder & CEO of Magma Space, to discuss precision satellite control. Magma Space is developing magnetically levitated reaction wheels and an integrated satellite control system designed to reduce microvibrations, improve pointing stability, and increase spacecraft reliability. The technology targets applications including high-resolution imaging, laser communications, in-space manufacturing, and autonomous spacecraft operations.

00:00 – Magma Space overview and magnetically levitated reaction wheels

02:32 – How reaction wheels control spacecraft and create microvibrations

04:04 – Alessandro Stabile’s background and the origins of Magma Space

06:00 – High-resolution imaging, in-space manufacturing, and initial markets

10:18 – Scaling reaction wheels for larger spacecraft and observatories

12:05 – Precision pointing for laser communications and power beaming

16:18 – Magnetic levitation technology and changing market requirements

18:36 – Earth observation, high-bandwidth data links, and live imaging

21:21 – Defense applications and proliferated satellite architectures

23:03 – Non-Earth imaging and space-to-space intelligence missions

26:01 – Government funding, commercial customers, and flight demonstrations

29:18 – Building an integrated control system and autonomous spacecraft capabilities

31:03 – Maneuverability, propellant efficiency, and tunable reaction wheels

35:36 – Control moment gyros, space stations, and artificial gravity concepts

38:20 – Future space infrastructure, orbital traffic, debris, and the Kessler effect

44:47 – Parabolic testing, ISS demonstrations, flight heritage, and reliability qualification

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Laura Moreno Patricio, CEO of EarthPulse, to discuss making Earth observation data usable at scale. EarthPulse combines multi-source satellite data, AI models, and client data into modular solutions that integrate into existing workflows for utilities, insurers, infrastructure operators, and governments. The company aims to turn fragmented Earth observation data into actionable risk, resilience, and compliance information without requiring in-house imagery expertise.

00:00 – Introduction and EarthPulse’s approach to making Earth observation data usable

03:12 – Customers, risk analysis, and productized alternatives to traditional consulting

06:34 – Laura Moreno Patricio’s background and the founding of EarthPulse

09:12 – Combining satellite sources, partnerships, and multi-source data fusion

11:14 – Why Earth observation applications require diverse datasets and analytics

13:48 – Building software that replaces the need for specialized imagery analysts

16:20 – Barriers to enterprise adoption and integrating analytics into daily workflows

20:34 – Building and financing a European deep-tech company

24:04 – European versus U.S. venture capital and international expansion

26:51 – Using public funding before transitioning toward private capital

28:43 – How LLMs and foundation models are accelerating EarthPulse’s product roadmap

30:26 – European space investment, scaling startups, and the role of U.S. capital

35:21 – European space sovereignty and the global Earth observation ecosystem

37:49 – Customizing EarthPulse solutions for individual enterprise workflows

41:41 – Connecting Earth observation insights to operational decisions and actions

46:19 – Reaching end users through trusted industry partners and existing software

48:32 – EarthPulse’s roadmap and vision for making geospatial analytics a commodity

50:04 – Closing thoughts on unlocking the value of satellite data

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Chris Stott, Founder, Chair & CEO of Lonestar Data Holdings, to discuss data centers in space. Lonestar is developing orbital data centers for secure, sovereign data storage and processing, with four systems already flown in space. The company is focused on protecting data while enabling inference, AI workloads, and geographically distributed access.

00:00 – Introduction and Lonestar’s secure, sovereign data-center model

01:38 – Why data centers in space are emerging as a major market

03:44 – What an orbital data center looks like and how the architecture scales

06:24 – Power, cooling, economics, and the broader role of data in the space economy

09:22 – Addressing thermal, radiation, and maintainability concerns

15:23 – Distributed satellite architectures and the future scale of space-based compute

16:48 – Comparing orbital and lunar data centers

18:43 – Technical and commercial barriers to scaling, and Lonestar’s path to operations

21:24 – SpaceX, launch competition, sovereignty, and market differentiation

24:15 – Space security, debris, regulation, insurance, and operational risk

32:10 – Ocean-based data centers and alternatives to terrestrial infrastructure

38:28 – Public resistance to data centers, geopolitics, and infrastructure competition

44:22 – Rapid growth in global data creation and the role of AI-driven demand

45:36 – Fusion, quantum computing, biotechnology, and other exponential technologies

49:23 – Final takeaways: technological progress, data resilience, and Lonestar’s outlook

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Derek Sutherland, Chief Scientific Officer of Realta Fusion, to discuss magnetic mirror fusion. Realta is developing a modular magnetic mirror architecture that confines fusion plasma in a linear geometry using high-temperature superconducting magnets. The discussion covers fusion economics, direct energy conversion, commercialization pathways, and potential applications in space propulsion.

00:00 – Introduction and Realta’s magnetic mirror approach to fusion

02:55 – History of magnetic mirrors, HTS magnets, and the founding of Realta

07:09 – Why fusion may move from research toward commercial power in the 2030s

09:41 – Why fusion development requires large amounts of capital

12:40 – Fusion economics, abundant fuel, and potential impact on global energy

15:29 – Realta’s target power range, plant footprint, and modular scaling

17:27 – Data centers, grid interconnects, coal plant repowering, and industrial process heat

21:02 – Advances in HTS magnets, computing, simulation, and Realta’s digital twin

23:59 – Physics and engineering work at Realta and experiments on the WAM device

26:47 – Direct energy conversion and future deuterium-helium-3 fuel cycles

29:11 – Commercial competition, cost reduction, and the target of below $50/MWh

32:42 – Fusion versus fission, regulation, and the potential for fusion space propulsion

38:20 – Antimatter propulsion, production and storage challenges, and fusion as a nearer-term alternative

43:21 – Plasma safety and how magnetic fields confine extremely hot fusion plasmas

50:04 – Fusion milestones from early experiments to NIF ignition and the path toward commercialization

57:40 – Closing perspective on fusion’s next decade and opportunities to enter the industry

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Balerion Advisor Doug McAdams sits down with Jim Keravala, CEO of StellarWorld, to discuss lunar cities and off-Earth industrial infrastructure. StellarWorld is developing a commercial framework for lunar cities, transportation, power, mining, manufacturing, and data centers. Its architecture combines terrestrial robotic mining experience with a network of partner companies intended to build scalable infrastructure on the Moon.

00:00 – Introduction and Jim Keravala’s background in spacecraft, launch, and space entrepreneurship03:42 – Why now: AI, industrial growth, and the Moon as the next infrastructure highway09:52 – Space settlement philosophy and the challenge of moving from vision to execution11:36 – StellarWorld, Lunar Cities Development Company, and the holding-company architecture16:47 – Building a multimodal transportation network from Earth to the lunar surface22:04 – Nuclear electric, nuclear thermal, and future fusion propulsion24:47 – Lunar landers, cargo barges, and the need for standardized lunar civil engineering27:50 – Civil Engineering 1.0 and the transition from the industrial age to the agentic age32:33 – AI-driven productivity, economic growth, and future infrastructure demand35:20 – Onworld Mining, terrestrial robotic mining, and the “terrestrial then celestial” strategy37:32 – Lunar data centers and the need for large-scale power and thermal management39:20 – Space-based solar, surface nuclear power, and lunar manufacturing43:23 – Timeline toward underground factories, data centers, and Lunar City District 146:25 – Why humans would live on the Moon in an increasingly autonomous economy52:00 – Underground lunar cities, radiation protection, and long-term human habitation54:09 – Scaling launch cadence and treating space as a commercial industrial domain56:03 – Closing vision: robotic swarm mining as the foundation for autonomous lunar development

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit balerionspace.substack.com