Space Business Podcast

By spacebusinessBusiness Entrepreneurship Science Technology Astronomy

Space Business Podcast episodes

October 28, 2024Space Business Podcast #127 - Will Crowe, HEO: Non-Earth Imaging
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!
Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" is available in e-book, paperback and audiobook formats - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
Timestamps:
00:00 Countdown
00:10 Episode intro
00:42 Podcast intro
01:27 Introducing Will Crow and HEO's Mission
02:48 HEO's Origin Story and Initial Focus on Asteroids
04:20 Commercial and National Security Use Cases
07:11 Recent Events and National Security Concerns
10:42 Challenges and Countermeasures in Space Monitoring
15:54 Customer Journey and Tasking Process
17:51 Leveraging Existing Satellites and Partnerships
23:58 Future Prospects and Monetizing Observation Time
25:02 Understanding Spatial Resolution in Space Observation
25:44 The Importance of High-Resolution Imaging
27:42 Video vs. Still Images in Space Observation
28:39 Data Handling and Analysis in Space Observation
31:36 Regulatory Challenges and Opportunities
37:20 Future Prospects and Technological Innovations
42:22 Long-Term Vision and Sci-Fi
46:16 Closing Remarks and Wrap-Up
48 min
June 16, 2024Space Business Podcast #126 - Mo Shahzad, Relativity Space: Launch
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!
Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:30 Relativity Space summary
5:13 Mo's career incl. switching to the space sector
7:00 Acting as a "translator"
13:00 Discussing difficulties with clients
17:38 Hiring
22:00 Steps on the way to Mars
28:32 Production and flight cadence
31:18 Pricing
34:00 Relativity in the broader launch market
38:31 Rideshare
40:50 Ancillary products
43:30 Vision
45:48 Interesting things in commercial space
49:00 Sci-Fi
50 min
May 07, 2024Space Business Podcast # 125 - Ankit Anand, Kicksky
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:
- an Indian startup interested in applying to KickSky
- interested in becoming a mentor at KickSky
- interested in joining KickSky's investor network
please go to https://www.kicksky.space
Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:19 Ankit's background and the Indian space ecosystem
13:34 Space Sector in India - Government & commercial
17:34 Kicksky's structure and program
26:22 Mentoring
31:16 Demo-day and practical examples
37:12 Experience of being an incubator
40:01 Future plans
43:08 Apply to Kicksky
43:37 Sci-fi
47 min
April 27, 2024Space Business Podcast #124 - Johannes Torpe: A Designer domesticating Space
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
Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:36 Johannes's background
6:05 Golden space suit entry
11:15 Connecting people to the Space Renaissance
18:42 Domesticating Space
21:50 The Space Mountain Case and Space "Retroism"
27:22 Potential ways of inspiring people
31:06 Hotels & Resorts
34:15 "Edutainment"
37:07 NASA Nightclub
42:36 Space & the arts
47:57 Current space-related projects
53:49 Sci-fi
59 min
April 18, 2024Space Business Podcast #123 - José Manuel Rodríguez, PLD Space: Launch
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/

Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:20 Elevator Pitch
6:05 European access to space
9:17 Business Model
13:17 Specs
18:10 Rocket engines
19:20 Production capacity
20:54 Scaling up
23:41 Europe vs. other markets
25:50 Customers
28:50 Gaining trust with customers
33:27 User guide
35:40 Launch market
39:10 Sovereign launch
42:08 Spaceports
44:18 Orbits
47:00 Future milestones
49:45 Team
53:38 Other interesting space activities
55:30 Sci-Fi
59 min
April 12, 2024Space Business Podcast #122 - Alexandra Vidyuk, Space Ambition & Aloniq VC
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/
Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:08 Alex's activities in the space sector
3:10 Space Ambition origins
5:48 Transitioning into the space sector
7:23 What is Space Ambition?
9:04 Topics
11:42 "Spotlights"
14:30 Insights from Spotlights
17:30 Women in Space
20:20 Dream guest
21:61 Insights of space tech investors
22:58 Other space media
25:13 Getting into space investing
27:28 Other deep tech areas vs. space
29:33 Interesting areas in space
31:33 Investor perspectives
35:53 The Singapore Space Ecosystem
38:58 Sci-fi
43 min
April 09, 2024Space Business Podcast #121 - Aaron Kemmer, Max Space: Inflatables
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.

For full disclosure: Max Space is a portfolio company of E2MC, the space venture capital fund founded by our host Raphael Roettgen.
https://getmaxspace.com/

Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:26 Max Space
3:32 Rationale for starting Max Space
7:22 Inflatables
9:26 Space in space
13:13 In-space experiments
15:51 Business model
18:13 Customization for use cases
21:13 User guide
22:27 Life support and space hazards
26:48 End of life planning
30:18 Inflatables beyond Earth orbit
35:50 Volume
36:44 Fitting windows & other structures
40:00 Inflating
41:00 First module in space
43:12 Major to-dos and milestones
46:25 Regulatory process
47:52 Long-term vision
51:20 Other exciting things in the space industry
55:07 Sci-fi
1 hr 1 min
April 03, 2024Space Business Podcast #120 - AdAstra - Space Talent Advisory
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
Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Timestamps
0:00 Episode intro
2:07 Intro to AdAstra
2:37 Life before AdAstra
6:29 Market demand & scope of roles
8:29 Advice for startups
10:51 Startup culture vs legacy culture
14:42 Advice for job candidates
17:32 Pre-filtering
21:22 Interview process
25:45 Getting candidates from non-space companies
29:40 Bottlenecks
35:12 Restrictions on international candidates
40:51 Gender imbalance in the space sector
45:40 Subsector trends
48:10 Roles & skills trends
50:25 Regional Trends
52:30 Compensation packages
57:40 Protecting clients
59:35 Space sector general interests
1:02:24 Sci-fi
1 hr 6 min
February 27, 2024Space Business Podcast #119 - Luke Fischer, SkyFi: EO data
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!
Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:35 Elevator pitch
3:40 EO data use now
8:08 SkyFi's product
11:42 A vision for space imagery
14:30 Business development
17:50 Business model & use cases
20:20 Customer service
21:30 Market education
23:20 Government impact
25:30 Trends, future tech & market gaps
28:10 Regulatory restrictions
31:50 Consolidation potential impact
37:20 User friendliness
39:40 Interesting customer behavior & use cases
43:40 Next milestones for SkyFi
46:10 Ten-year vision
49:15 SkyFi is hiring
50:15 What else is interesting in the space sector?
51:25 Sci-Fi
54 min
February 19, 2024Space Business Podcast #118 - Sho Nakanose, Gitai: Space Robotics
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/
Follow us:
Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/
Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/
Learn more about space & the space economy:
SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:31 Elevator Pitch
3:50 Gitai's origin story
6:18 Pitching the company 7 years ago
9:08 Shifting perceptions
11:13 Gitai's products
13:50 Engineering approach
19:12 Use cases
24:50 Customers
26:40 First lunar use case
28:00 First lunar demonstration
30:07 Next major milestones
32:35 Business model
33:45 Vision for the Company
35:00 Cost target
36:45 Future missions
38:45 Mass production & supply chain
41:25 Humanoid robots
45:25 Terrestrial business options
48:40 Gitai is hiring!
50:00 What else is interesting in the space sector
51:38 Sci Fi
54 min

About Space Business Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Space is rapidly growing into an exciting ecosystem for business. In this podcast we hear from entrepreneurs, executives, investors and others about the many opportunities that exist. This podcast is…