Rockets and Radars: Zero to Millions in Space and Defence

Justin Lane (CEO & Co-Founder of CulturePulse) spent years in the most volatile corners of the world trying to understand one thing: why do entire societies behave the way they do? He had a PhD, a background in cognitive science, and a growing frustration with an AI industry obsessed with language models that could write like humans, but had no idea how humans actually think, decide, or act. S...

Viktoriia Yaremchuk (CEO & Co-Founder of Farsight Vision) was handed a problem nobody had solved: Ukrainian frontline units drowning in drone footage with no way to process it, sitting manually watching hour-long videos to spot something useful. She had a PhD, a software background, and friends calling from the front asking for tools that didn't exist. So she built them. What followed was...

Frank Salzgeber (sometimes called the "Father of ESA BIC") was initially handed a broken ESA tech transfer programme and told to fix it. Nobody asked him to build an incubator. He just had enough freedom and used it. What followed was 19 years inside ESA watching the European space startup scene grow from nothing — Isar Aerospace, Leaf Space, ClearSpace - watching them go from founders w...

Amin Chabi (founder of Lúnasa Space) didn't set out to build a company. He graduated with a master's in space and astronautics, COVID hit, nobody was hiring — and starting alone was the only option left. What he stumbled into was one of the most overlooked crises in space: thousands of dead satellites cluttering orbit, threatening the GPS, banking, internet and telecom infrastructure the e...

Kenneth Richard Geipel (co-founder of Robotto) started his career not in a lab or a startup — but in the Danish Armed Forces, where he served three combat deployments. When he left the military, he went back to university to study robotics. His thesis project? A drone to deliver pizza from 500 meters away, because he and his classmates were too lazy to walk. What nobody expected is what happened n...

Nima Shahinian (co-founder of Nåva Space) had one dream: go to space. He trained for it, negotiated for it, and got closer than almost any private citizen ever has. Then in a single morning, everything collapsed after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. So he did the next best thing. He decided to rebuild the spacesuit instead. What people don’t know is that NASA has a handful of operational suits lef...

Pavel Panasjuk was running cleantech startups when Russian missiles started hitting Ukraine in 2022. He had zero defencetech experience—his only military knowledge came from reading history books as a hobby. Like many Ukrainian entrepreneurs, he and his co-founder Oleksandr started by buying medkits, cars, ammunition, and bulletproof vests to supply friends in the army. But after a few months, the...

Francesco Cacciatore, a space engineer who spent 20 years designing missions to Mars, Mercury, and comets at companies like Deimos and Sener, co-founded Orbital Paradigm in 2023. When most thought reentry was a closed market dominated by established players, his team did the unthinkable: they built Spain's first reentry capsule in 11 months—working nights and weekends while still employed—and...

Christian Schmierer, an aerospace engineer who grew up next to Europe's largest rocket test center, co-founded HyImpulse in 2018. When every expert dismissed hybrid rockets as failed technology from the 1960s, his team did the unthinkable: they built rockets powered by paraffin—essentially candle wax. Today, HyImpulse has raised over €45 million and became Germany's first privately-funded...

Rafel Jorda Siquier, an aerospace engineer from Mallorca, founded Open Cosmos in 2015. When they landed their first satellite contract, every university—including his own—refused to give them clean room access. So they went to the Arctic Circle to assemble their first satellite. Today, Open Cosmos has secured over €120 million in contracts in the last year alone, building satellites faster and che...

V'yacheslav Shvaydak, an ex-lieutenant with a PhD in economics co-founded DROPLA in 2023. Starting with three co-founders and zero revenue, they pitched military officials: "we're a small startup, our name is nobody, can you please give us some land mines?" They were shown the door. Today, DROPLA has raised millions from international investors and built technology now deployed a...

Lars Alminde co-founded GomSpace in 2007, one of Europe's first New Space companies, at a time when ESA openly dismissed their technology as "not something we're ever going to use." Fast forward 18 years, ESA is now a customer of GomSpace, and Lars has lived through nearly every crisis a space founder can face. He stepped down as CEO after seven years, watched the company go publ...

Philip Johnston is the CEO and Co-founder of Starcloud, a YC-backed startup building data centers in space to solve AI's growing energy crisis. After working at Goldman Sachs and consulting for Middle Eastern space agencies, Philip assembled what he calls "the 10 most kickass engineers in the world" from thousands of candidates. Their mission: create gigabit-scale orbital data center...

Lukas Werling is the CEO and co-founder of ISPTech, a German space startup developing green propellants that eliminate the need for hazmat suits and could slash space propulsion costs by 75%. The company has in a short time secured €2 million in funding with three orbital missions lined up for flight later this year. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Lukas shares his journey from a mechanical...

Sebastian Klaus (CEO and co-founder of ATMOS Space Cargo) went from a 17-year-old watching SpaceShipOne make history to building Europe's fastest-moving space reentry company from prototype to flight under 12 months. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Sebastian reveals how ATMOS went from nearly going bankrupt in 2022 to successfully demonstrating inflatable heat shield technology from a s...

Stefan Roebel transformed from 12 years in the German military and a decade scaling Amazon operations to co-founding Europe's largest autonomous military vehicle production facility in just 3 years. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Stefan reveals how ARX Robotics (ARX) went from a university research project to life-saving robots supporting Ukrainian troops in under 3 years. From a tired...

Mitch Hunter-Scullion is the CEO and founder of Asteroid Mining Corporation (AMC), Europe's first asteroid mining company with operations across three continents and partnership with Japanese lab that built HAYABUSA (actual asteroid missions). In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Mitch shares his journey from a 21-year-old university student writing a dissertation on asteroid mining to build...

Adel Haddoud is the CEO and co-founder of Infinite Orbits, a space servicing startup that has raised €12 million in Series A funding. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Adel shares his journey from aerospace engineer and serial entrepreneur to building the world's first commercial nanosatellite in geostationary orbit. From surviving month-to-month during the pandemic to landing contracts w...

Kenneth Skorpen is the co-founder and CEO of BlinkTroll Robotics, a defence tech startup that has raised €1.5 million just a few days ago. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Kenneth shares his journey from a decade in Norwegian special forces to building moving target systems that increase soldiers' hit accuracy from 10% to 80%. He reveals how his frustration with predictable static traini...

Thomas Grübler is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of OroraTech, Germany's pioneering space-based wildfire detection company that has secured over €70 million in funding. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Thomas shares his journey from building satellites as a university student to creating a company that provides fire intelligence to firefighters worldwide. He reveals how a simp...

Omar Qaise is the founder of OQ Technology, Luxembourg's first New Space startup as well as Europe's leading satellite 5G operator in direct-to-device connectivity. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Omar shares his journey from working at ESA and DLR to founding a space startup without co-founders in 2016. He reveals how he secured early contracts, demonstrated the world's first s...

Dan Hermansen is the founder of MyDefence, an European drone defence company that's become a global leader in soldier-borne counter-unmanned aerial systems. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Dan shares his remarkable journey from Danish Air Force reserve officer to building an European defence tech with 150% annual growth. He reveals how they pivoted from roadside bomb protection to drone...

José Mariano Lopez-Urdiales is the founder of Zero2Infinity, an European space balloon company that's been challenging conventional approaches to space access for over 15 years. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, José shares his remarkable journey starting with just €90,000 and a vision for space balloon technology that could revolutionize how we access space. He discusses nearly securing...

Stanislas Maximin is the founder and Executive Chairman of Latitude, a company valued over €100 million that's putting France back in the orbital launch business after almost 50 years. In this episode of Rockets and Radars, Stanislas shares his journey from being a self-described "terrible student" with a passion for rockets to building a space company. He discusses the challenges of...

Daniel Pérez Grande is the CEO of Ienai Space, a Spanish space propulsion startup that evolved from university research into a company pioneering electric mobility for satellites. Beginning with winning the Young Visionaries Award at the International Electric Propulsion Conference in 2017, he built a team that would secure €10 million in funding and put the first European ElectroSpray thruster in...