Back in the Pathfinder hot seat is Caleb Henry, Director of Research at Quilty Space. We were privileged to have Caleb join us over a year ago on one of the initial Pathfinder episodes, where he shed light on industry consolidation and the T-Mobile partnership with SpaceX. 

Today, he rejoins us to delve into a variety of pertinent topics, including: 

• SpaceX vs everyone else
• Remote sensing business models
• LEO vs GEO broadband operators
• Capacity shortages across operators
• Effective telecom regulation 

And much more…

This episode is brought to you by SpiderOak, a US-based software company that builds space cybersecurity products and solutions for civilian, military, and commercial space operations. Learn more at https://spideroak.com/ 

• Chapters • 

00:00 - Intro & SpiderOak Ad 

01:56 - Caleb’s origin story 

04:00 - Transitioning from journalist to research writer 

10:08 - How does Quilty choose what to focus on 

13:44 - Is SpaceX a monopoly? 

18:24 - Supply/demand dynamics of launch 

20:39 - Market for small and medium lift launch vehicles 

24:42 - SpiderOak Ad break 

25:29 - The commercial remote sensing market 

30:53 - A commercial remote sensing market big enough for multibillion businesses? 

33:57 - Will Starlink make GEO operators obsolete? 

40:03 - A shortage of capacity? 

42:56 - Would you rather be a LEO or GEO operator? 

45:42 - Where should there should be more regulation? 

49:56 - What would you be doing if you weren’t in the space industry?

• Show notes • 

Caleb's socials — https://twitter.com/ChenrySpace

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam 

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace 

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes 

• About us • 

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers. 

Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)