The Space Capital Podcast

In this sixth episode of the second season of The Space Capital Podcast, we're speaking with Jonny Dyer, founder and CEO of Muon Space, about how he's built a truly one-of-a-kind team to tackle one of the greatest opportunities of our lifetime. Muon Space is developing a data-centric platform with a multitude of scientific-grade sensors at global scale. The company sets out to become the turnkey m...

In this fifth episode of the second season of The Space Capital Podcast, we're speaking with Justin Cyrus, co-founder and CEO of Lunar Outpost, a robotics company w/ products serving extreme environments on the lunar surface as well as terrestrial industries including mining. Lunar Outpost has two contracted rides to the Moon (both first in human history to their respective locations) and has sold...

In this fourth episode of the second season of The Space Capital Podcast, we're speaking with Michael Small, co-founder and CEO of K4 Mobility, a digital technology and Internet services provider for off-grid communications. Space Capital invested in K4 earlier this year based on the quality and experience of the team, and we are incredibly excited about what they're building.

In this third episode of the second season of The Space Capital Podcast, we're speaking with Sid Jha, founder and CEO of Arbol, a parametric insurance marketplace for farms and businesses exposed to weather risk; and he's also Founding Partner of dClimate, the world's first transparent, decentralized marketplace where climate data, forecasts, and models are standardized, monetized, and distributed...

In this second episode of the second season of The Space Capital Podcast, we're speaking with Allan Cannon, founder and CEO of R3 IoT, a Scotland-based company, which combines satellite and cell technology to deliver mission-critical communication services to several different industries. R3 IoT combines cutting edge satellite communications technology with the best of IoT to offer unique end-to-e...

In this episode of The Space Capital Podcast, we're speaking with Nathan Kundtz, founder and CEO of Rendered.ai, about the company's upcoming launch and how it will further advance their competitive lead to overcome costs and challenges in acquiring and using real-world data for training machine learning and artificial intelligence systems. Rendered.ai has developed the Platform as a Service for C...

In this episode, we're talking about the role talent plays in successful startups. For decades companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft have been competing for top talent and the rise of venture backed startups around the world have driven the competition to an all out battle for great hires. Why? Simply put, the talent within an organization turns dreams into reality. The best founders quickly lea...

GHGSat's vision is to become the global reference for remote sensing of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air quality gas emissions from industrial sites, using satellites. Their satellite is the first in the world capable of measuring air emissions from targeted industrial facilities. This information will help operators understand their own emissions and will stimulate the formation of markets for low-ca...

GPS is a space-based technology that has generated trillions of dollars in economic value and some of the largest venture outcomes in history. "The GPS Playbook", a new report by Space Capital and Silicon Valley Bank, demonstrates the potential for Space-based Communications and Geospatial Intelligence markets to generate over $1 trillion in equity value over the next decade. In this episode, we s...

Michael Sheetz started at CNBC covering breaking news and then joined the markets team, writing about Wall Street and stocks. During that time, CNBC gave him room to report on the space industry and realized there was a huge audience for it. Investors of all kinds, from the mom and pop retail investors to the largest investors on Wall Street, were all interested in exploring opportunities in the s...

Quantum computing is advancing rapidly and this is creating a problem for secure communications that rely on the supposed mathematical complexity of asymmetric encryption keys. Although these keys are secure against computational hacks today, most are easily cracked with quantum computers. China is leading the world in creating its own impenetrable quantum secure network and looks to extend that l...

When the number in the corner of our smartphone screens changed from 3G to 4G, few of us even noticed. The same when LTE appeared as an alternative to 4G. However, tech futurists say that fifth-generation networks will support a plethora of internet-connected sensors, vehicles, appliances, and other devices that will perform functions not yet unimagined. And satellites will play an important role...

Space-based technologies are the building blocks of innovation and enable our global economy. Early infrastructure investments in GPS by the government were leveraged by distribution pioneers Trimble, Magellan, and Garmin, who not only made the signal more useful/accessible by military troops, but also for commercial purposes. The importance of this space-based signal cannot be understated and is...

The legacy of satellite imagery dates back to the '60s, but widespread access is just becoming a reality. The ubiquitous use of GPS has become engrained in everyday life, and satellite imagery is on the precipice of a similar boom. In this episode, we talk to James Slifierz, CEO of Skywatch. Skywatch makes satellite data more accessible by providing the digital infrastructure and advanced processi...

Tractors have been using autonomous driving for decades, but the AgTech sector is relatively new. With water becoming a scarce resource and fertilizer waste growing, precision agriculture is paving the way toward a more sustainable farm. In this episode, we talk to Anastasia Volkova, CEO of FluroSat. FluroSat uses an analytics platform that leverages satellite imagery, agronomic models, weather, a...

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...

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...

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 bet...

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,...

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...

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 Cl...

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 develope...

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 v...

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 rocket...

By the 2020's, near the planned end of the life of the International Space Station, NASA's intention is to transition Low Earth Orbit from a domain that is primarily government-led to one that is primarily led by the private sector. The future is commercial and in this episode we welcome Jeff Manber to the show, who is CEO of NanoRacks, the world's leading supplier of commercial space station serv...