Eye of the Dragon

Balerion Principal Emerson Garnett sits down with Halen Mattison, Co-Founder & CEO of General Galactic, to discuss water-powered orbital logistics. General Galactic is developing the Genesis water-based multimode propulsion system and the Selden spacecraft to provide high-delta-V orbital mobility without toxic propellants. Its roadmap extends from commercial orbit raising and defense logistics to refueling networks supplied by lunar and Martian resources.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – Introduction, Mattison’s SpaceX background, and the energy challenge in space

02:48 – General Galactic’s vision for in-space logistics and energy infrastructure

04:19 – Genesis water-based multimode propulsion and alternatives to hydrazine

07:14 – Water electrolysis and the technical basis for higher-performance propulsion

09:33 – Selden spacecraft architecture, high delta-V, and rapid launch readiness

12:01 – Lower-cost access to GEO and other high-energy destinations

13:34 – Near-term commercial and defense missions versus lunar and Martian infrastructure

15:58 – How greater spacecraft mobility could change mission design and space strategy

18:31 – Full-stack operations, orbital refueling depots, and a cislunar transportation network

22:05 – Sabatier reactors, methane production, and resource utilization on Mars

23:28 – Roadmap from initial demonstrations to a broader orbital economy

25:11 – Flight heritage, rapid iteration, risk reduction, and operational scaling

26:45 – Constellation growth and platforms supporting Space Force operations

28:07 – Competitive differentiation, water propulsion adoption, and market defensibility

31:04 – Nuclear thermal and nuclear electric propulsion within the long-term roadmap

33:45 – Customer integration, standardized interfaces, pricing, and upcoming milestones

37:55 – Closing remarks and where to follow General Galactic

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Aaron Mitchell, Venture Partner at Balerion Space Ventures, to discuss his path from engineering to venture. Aaron traces his career from propulsion engineering at NASA through early roles at Momentus and Impulse Space, where he led product management. The conversation examines startup execution, technical diligence, space communications and power, advanced propulsion, and the next generation of aerospace founders.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – Introduction and Aaron’s transition from engineering to venture capital

03:10 – Product management, engineering leadership, and the pace of startup execution

05:22 – Evaluating an early-stage company as both an employee and an investor

07:03 – Joining Impulse Space during its earliest period of rapid growth

08:23 – Impulse’s first facility and the incremental development of the Saiph thruster

10:38 – Working with Tom Mueller and the Mojave amateur-rocketry ecosystem

13:18 – Amateur rocketry, propulsion scale, and the transition from solid to liquid engines

17:05 – How spacecraft propulsion differs from launch propulsion

19:17 – Tom Mueller’s engineering process and the development of the Deneb engine

23:35 – Moving to the investor side and asking whether a problem is worth solving

25:34 – Why communications remains the dominant commercial space market

31:28 – Space-based solar power and the need for additional economic pillars in orbit

33:12 – Nuclear propulsion, political commitment, and competing technology pathways

37:48 – SpaceX alumni, employee liquidity, and a potential new wave of space startups

41:47 – Space technology as an emerging venture category and closing remarks

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Daniel Pérez Grande, CEO & Co-Founder of IENAI Space, to discuss small-satellite mobility. IENAI Space is developing modular electrospray thrusters for small spacecraft, alongside software for mission design and propulsion-system selection. Its integrated approach extends from preflight analysis through automated orbital maneuvering, with the goal of reducing propellant mass and simplifying satellite operations.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – Introduction and IENAI Space’s end-to-end mobility model

02:46 – Founder backgrounds and the propulsion gap for small satellites

06:05 – Athena’s modular electrospray architecture

07:41 – Athena Pico, Nano, and Micro product specifications

11:29 – Electric propulsion compared with chemical propulsion

15:20 – The satellite market’s shift toward larger spacecraft

20:05 – Constellations, VLEO operations, and asteroid applications

24:33 – High-power, nuclear-electric, and nuclear-thermal propulsion

30:14 – Building a space company in Spain and European funding constraints

33:24 – Company growth, test infrastructure, and orbital demonstrations

37:29 – 360 mission-analysis software and propulsion trade studies

43:00 – Orbital automation, digital twins, and autonomous maneuver planning

46:13 – Mobility, collision avoidance, debris, and future regulation

48:46 – Closing perspective on reliable, low-burden propulsion systems

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Brett Hill, Founder & CEO of Praetorian Aeronautics, to discuss autonomous counter-drone defense. The company is developing Arrow and Dagger autonomous interceptors, supported by AI-enabled battle-management software, to counter aerial and maritime autonomous threats. Its systems are designed to provide scalable, longer-range defense against saturation attacks that can overwhelm electronic warfare, guns, directed-energy weapons, and conventional missiles.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – Introduction and Praetorian’s counter-autonomy mission

04:07 – Arrow and Dagger interceptor architecture, range, and manufacturing

06:29 – Demand across Ukraine, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific

10:28 – Electronic warfare, directed energy, guns, missiles, and kinetic interceptors

16:44 – Drone detection, radar limitations, and AI-supported decision-making

20:46 – Evolving Shahed tactics, autonomous threats, and faster interceptors

25:11 – Hypersonic defense and the concept of aerial minefields

30:00 – Counter-autonomy requirements for a Pacific conflict

33:37 – Maritime motherships, distributed sensing, and long-range defense

36:21 – Australia’s defense technology ecosystem and AUKUS cooperation

41:04 – The future roles of defense startups and traditional primes

46:48 – Brett’s aerospace career and the founding of Praetorian

48:57 – Company growth, autonomous interception milestones, and Ukraine deployment

51:53 – Why AI, autonomy, and scalable manufacturing are becoming essential

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Tom Barton, Co-Founder & CEO of Antaris, to discuss software-defined satellite systems. Antaris provides a software- and AI-based platform for designing, simulating, manufacturing, and operating satellite constellations. Its full-mission virtualization tools model spacecraft, ground infrastructure, software, and mission operations before deployment.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – Introduction and overview of the Antaris platform01:14 – Barton’s background in open-source software, cloud infrastructure, and Planet Labs

04:02 – Founding Antaris to bring software abstraction and interoperability to space systems

05:01 – Platform capabilities spanning design, simulation, command and control, and flight software

07:03 – Limitations of legacy flight-software architectures and the SatOS approach

09:09 – Full-mission virtualization for government agencies and defense primes

13:08 – Reducing mission risk, development time, and human operational workload

15:13 – Edge AI, onboard processing, and software-defined satellite missions

17:14 – Multimodal Earth observation and delivering actionable intelligence

18:36 – Driving adoption without displacing incumbent spacecraft systems

20:29 – Sovereign space programs and localized satellite manufacturing

23:26 – How space software differs from conventional B2B SaaS

25:50 – Automated constellation operations and human oversight of exceptions

28:48 – Antaris’ defensibility through abstraction, synthetic telemetry, and specialized AI

31:18 – Customer demand in Japan and the value of end-to-end simulation

33:27 – Venture-capital dynamics and the shift from vertical integration toward interoperability

38:17 – Quantum key distribution, optical communications, and future satellite demand

44:03 – Common simulation surprises, including power, thermal, and ground-network constraints

46:44 – Marquee customer acquisition, future milestones, and Antaris’ multimodal ISR strategy

49:40 – Closing takeaway and conclusion

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with Matt Gialich, Co-Founder & CEO of AstroForge, to discuss commercial asteroid mining. AstroForge is developing compact deep-space spacecraft designed to reach metal-rich near-Earth asteroids, extract platinum-group metals, and return refined material to Earth. The company seeks to make asteroid mining economically viable through rideshare launches, autonomous operations, and lower-cost commercial mission architectures.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – AstroForge’s mission and the economics of mining near-Earth asteroids

02:22 – Gialich’s background in defense engineering, Virgin Orbit, Bird, and deep-space mission development

05:48 – The history of asteroid mining and why lower launch costs have changed its feasibility

08:35 – The Odin mission, rapid spacecraft development, and lessons from AstroForge’s first deep-space attempt

11:47 – Magnetic asteroid docking, target selection, and the planned refining process

16:09 – Terrestrial commodity sales, planetary defense, and other applications for deep-space spacecraft

19:31 – Why asteroid mining is better suited to autonomous systems than crewed missions

22:27 – Asteroid classifications and the industrial uses of platinum-group metals

26:36 – The estimated population and distribution of accessible metal-rich asteroids

30:30 – Distinguishing theoretical resource value from economically recoverable ore

32:53 – Competition from China, AstroForge’s technical moat, and potential future entrants

35:52 – Propulsion, space-domain awareness, and the value of simple spacecraft architectures

39:08 – Why lunar resources may be less economically attractive than intact metal asteroids

41:47 – Commodity demand, price risk, supply elasticity, and the potential impact of returned material

45:32 – Critical-mineral geopolitics, fundraising, team building, and milestone-driven mission development

52:39 – Commercializing proven asteroid-sampling capabilities and the broader implications of asteroid mining

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

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

Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis sits down with David Moodie, Founder & CEO of Foundry Lab, to discuss digitized metal casting and reshoring. Foundry Lab is developing automated casting systems that control molten-metal viscosity to produce thin-walled, high-toughness aluminum components with limited specialized labor. The company aims to reduce long casting lead times, support on-demand production and rebuild distributed manufacturing capacity in the United States.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – Introduction and overview of Foundry Lab’s metal-casting technology

01:30 – Digitizing an ancient manufacturing process and reducing dependence on specialized foundry knowledge

03:35 – Automated casting, viscosity control and production of complex thin-walled components

06:25 – Casting lead times, skilled-worker shortages and supply-chain constraints in aerospace and defense

09:15 – Mold design, process variability and how SpaceX, Tesla and other manufacturers developed internal casting capabilities

12:59 – Foundry Lab’s origins in New Zealand and the decision to establish operations in Texas

16:09 – Lessons from building a hardware-intensive startup and investing deeply in technical development

20:09 – Foundry Lab’s technical moat and its collaborative design-for-casting process with customers

23:17 – Entering the U.S. defense market, ITAR requirements and independent verification of material performance

27:03 – The relationship between software and hardware in rebuilding competitive Western manufacturing

31:15 – Industrial-base dependencies spanning mining, alloy production, insulation, vacuum equipment and other foundational suppliers

34:34 – Automation, machine vision, industrial power constraints and investment in manufacturing infrastructure

38:30 – Support from Peter Beck, Founders Fund and Foundry Lab’s New Zealand investors

43:31 – Scaling through a distributed casting-as-a-service network and potentially deployed defense foundries

49:04 – New-product manufacturing, on-demand sustainment, minimum orders of one and casting from the start

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis and Venture Partner Aaron Mitchell sit down with Raj Kulshrestha, Co-Founder & CEO of Space Machines Company, to discuss space security. The company is developing autonomous software and highly maneuverable spacecraft for threat detection, close inspection, and on-orbit response. Its architecture is designed to protect increasingly valuable commercial and national-security infrastructure in orbit.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – Introduction and Space Machines Company overview

03:13 – Moving from space situational awareness to threat inference and response

07:08 – Company milestones and the development of low-cost maneuverable spacecraft

10:13 – Australia’s space ecosystem and partnership with HEO

14:25 – Global customers and expansion beyond the Australian market

15:23 – Propulsion, orbital positioning, and rapid-response architectures

18:49 – Tracking maneuvering satellites and assessing intent at machine speed

21:11 – Counterspace threats and commercial protection of orbital infrastructure

23:38 – Hardware, software, propulsion, and supply-chain challenges

28:17 – Building a data flywheel through deployed spacecraft and commercial satellites

29:48 – Upcoming RPO and national-security missions

32:49 – Extending operations to GEO and cislunar space

36:23 – Golden Dome, allied architectures, and ITAR-free systems

40:08 – Opportunities for greater US-Australia collaboration

42:40 – Fundraising across different investor ecosystems

45:27 – Operating norms in a future with large numbers of maneuverable satellites

49:22 – Policy, regulation, and the development of responsible proximity operations

53:12 – Deterrence, asymmetric advantage, and distributed orbital defense

56:21 – Closing remarks

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Balerion Principal Aidan Daoussis and Venture Partner Aaron Mitchell sit down with Jasper Deprez, CEO of Terraspark, to discuss space-based solar power. Terraspark is developing space-based solar power systems that harvest energy in orbit and transmit it to Earth using radio frequency. The company is focused first on remote, off-grid customers where energy availability is limited by diesel logistics, weather-dependent renewables, and grid constraints.

Timestamped Overview

00:00 – Introduction to Terraspark and space-based solar power

02:14 – Why Terraspark is starting with lower Earth orbit rather than large GEO architectures

04:01 – Off-grid mining, islands, and remote sites as initial energy customers

05:36 – Ground infrastructure and the role of rectennas in receiving radio frequency energy

06:20 – History of wireless power transfer and research at Kyoto University

08:37 – Building a European space and energy company from Luxembourg

09:24 – Terraspark’s team, execution cadence, and early hardware progress

12:14 – Customer selection, LCOE, and premium markets where reliability matters more than low-cost energy

18:01 – Power capacity, constellation sizing, and working with utilities as renewable developers

21:26 – LEO as a backup-energy layer and future MEO systems for larger-scale power delivery

23:01 – Orbit selection, including equatorial and sun-synchronous options

26:53 – 2027 space-to-space wireless power demonstration and 2028 space-to-Earth proof of principle

30:48 – Terrestrial wireless power use cases in ports, logistics hubs, and mining operations

33:13 – Radio frequency versus lasers and reflectors for different power-beaming applications

36:05 – Space-to-space power transfer and why lasers may fit existing satellite architectures

38:54 – Public perception, safety communication, and the “seven Cs” framework

42:04 – Planned wireless-powered concert demonstration in Portugal

47:04 – Rectenna land use, dual-use sites, and applications for island nations

49:14 – Competitive landscape across space-based solar, infrastructure, and energy markets

52:48 – Long-term goal of making space-based solar power a routine part of energy infrastructure

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