The Space Capital Podcast

In the space, government, and science communities, Lori Garver is a household name. She served as the second-in-command at NASA during the Obama administration, where she was a key proponent of the commercial space industry. She is a co-founder of the prestigious Brooke Owens Fellowship for women in aerospace and is also the CEO of Earthrise Alliance, a new non-profit organization which is joining the fight against climate change.

SpaceX could save NASA and the future of space exploration (The Hill)

A new aerospace industry fellowship for women aims to address the field's gender inequality (Quartz)

Brooke Owens Fellowship

Earthrise Alliance aims to turn data from space into a resource for climate action (Yahoo!)

Earthrise Alliance

With the number of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) projected to swell to up to 15,000 in the next five years, space situational awareness and debris mitigation have become a much-discussed topic in the last year. In this episode, we talk to Dan Ceperly, CEO of LeoLabs, whose mission is to ensure safe commercial operations in LEO. The Space Angels and Space Capital-funded company was founded to provide a practical, cost-effective solution to debris tracking, management, and mitigation starting now, before the problem escalates.

US start-up LeoLabs maps out plan to make dollars from space junk • SRI International • platform.leolabs.space • Space Policy Directive-3, National Space Traffic Management Policy • RemoveDEBRIS harpoon and net capture

Andy Aldrin is a true child of the Apollo era. Son of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, his career has spanned nearly every aspect of the space economy from big defense contractors, to entrepreneurial space, and academia. Currently an Associate Professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, Aldrin has recently launched the Center for Space Entrepreneurship, a program developed in partnership between FIT and the International Space University. He has built a modern curriculum and assembled a group of world-class professors and business people across all space industries to show graduate students what it takes to start and run a successful business in the Entrepreneurial Space Age.

Anousheh Ansari has many firsts to her name—the first female private space explorer, the first Iranian in space, the first blogger from space. She is also responsible for helping to open up the Entrepreneurial Space Age through her work as the title sponsor of the Ansari XPrize. We spoke with Anousheh on how she made a childhood dream reality, the profound impact space travel has had on her life, and what the future has in store for this life-long explorer.

Jane Poynter is nothing if not fascinating. A former Biospherian and co-founder of Paragon Space Development Corporation, she is currently the co-founder and CEO World View, which is pioneering a new frontier at the edge of space and leading the way in the emerging stratospheric economy. Stratollites are high-altitude balloons that serve a variety of mission functions and a broad range of critical commercial needs and applications. Poynter discusses the benefits of stratollites compared with traditional launch vehicles, how her team came together and where World View is headed next.

What rules exist to govern and grant property rights in space? What are you allowed to do and not do? And how are things changing as more new entrants join the space economy? To answer these questions, we spoke with Richard Garriott, a private astronaut and famed video game developer. He is also the Vice Chairman of Space Adventures, a trustee of the XPRIZE Foundation, a Fellow of the Explorers Club, and an advisor for our venture fund, Space Capital. But Richard's credentials are not the reason we've invited him to the podcast—Richard is the first person to credibly claim ownership of extraterrestrial territory.

Investors often think space entrepreneurs like Elon Musk have achieved success all on their own. But government has played a major role in the development, growth, and revenue of companies like SpaceX. This episode's guest, Eric Stallmer, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, explains how the entire commercial space economy is built on a foundation of 60+ years of technology developed by governments. Episode 6 addresses the question: What is NASA's role in the future entrepreneurial space?

Every year Space Angels ​host​s​ an Expedition, where a limited group of 20 of our most active investor members come together for an inside, first-hand look at the nascent private space industry. In prior years we've traveled to space industry hotbeds like San Francisco, Seattle, and Southern California, where members have enjoyed unique access to some of the most prominent entrepreneurial space ventures. Joining us on this year's Expedition was author, journalist, British television personality, and Space Angels contributor, Sarah Cruddas, who's joins us on this episode to give us an inside listen to Expedition 17 Houston.

With a number of new plans emerging to take humans to the moon and Mars, the question of affordable transportation remains. Our guest today, Chris Lewicki—CEO of Planetary Resources, has a solution. The asteroid-mining company ​plans to drastically reduce the cost of deep space missions by ​refueling launch vehicles ​in space ​with ​water extracted from asteroids.​ ​Their technology enables rockets bound for Mars, and other destinations, ​to ​carry five times more cargo than what's possible today​, without simply building larger vehicles. In this episode we're discussing asteroid mining, how it works, the market opportunity, and who's going to pay for this water.