Space Business with Fexingo: Launch Companies, Satellites, and Commercial Spaceflight

As NASA's Artemis program and multiple commercial landers head for the Moon, a new bottleneck is emerging: communications. On Earth, we take real-time data transfer for granted. On the Moon, there's no fiber, no cellular network, and no internet — only direct line-of-sight links that vanish when a lander rotates or when the spacecraft is on the far side. This episode examines the emerging business...

In this episode of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the economics of space tourism in mid-2026. With Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin scaling flights, and SpaceX's Starship poised for orbital tourist missions, the hosts break down the unit economics per seat, the cost of insurance, and the regulatory hurdles that still keep ticket prices above $250,000. They discuss how competi...

Lucas and Luna explore the emerging business of hypersonic flight testing. They focus on a specific company: Hermeus, an Atlanta-based startup developing a Mach 5 commercial aircraft. The discussion covers how the U.S. government is becoming a key customer for hypersonic test flights, the economics of flying at five times the speed of sound, and why the Air Force's 'SkyRange' program is investing...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging market for space debris removal, focusing on Astroscale's recent demonstration missions and the growing commercial imperative to clean up low Earth orbit. They discuss the economics of debris removal, the regulatory landscape, and how companies like Astroscale and ClearSpace are turning a liability into a business opportunity. The hosts examine...

Satellites are increasingly targets for cyberattacks, yet most operators treat security as an afterthought. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore why the satellite industry is finally waking up to cybersecurity — and how a new generation of startups is building encryption, intrusion detection, and resilience tools specifically for orbit. They examine the 2022 Viasat attack that knocked out thous...

Lucas and Luna explore the shift from free GPS to subscription-based satellite navigation services. They examine how companies like Garmin, TomTom, and automakers are bundling real-time traffic, lane-level guidance, and over-the-air updates into recurring revenue models. The episode anchors on the recent news that BMW and Mercedes-Benz now charge monthly fees for advanced navigation features, with...

Lucas and Luna explore the emerging market for satellite refueling in orbit, centered on NASA's OSAM-1 mission and startup Orbit Fab's refueling ports. They break down the economics of extending satellite life by refueling instead of replacing, the technical challenges of transferring propellant in zero gravity, and why this technology could unlock new business models for satellite operators. With...

Episode 72 of Space Business with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna explore the emerging business of in-space assembly — building satellites and structures in orbit rather on the ground. They examine Maxar's planned in-orbit robotic assembly demo for a 2027 launch, the cost savings of launching flat-packed components vs monolithic satellites, and why NASA's Restore-L mission pivoted to focus on assembly. Th...

For decades, the idea of manufacturing in microgravity was science fiction, but a handful of companies are now turning it into a commercial reality. In this episode, Lucas and Luna look at one specific case: Varda Space Industries, which successfully returned its first batch of pharmaceuticals from orbit in early 2025. They break down why drug crystallization works better in zero gravity, how Vard...

Spacecraft have been using the same basic chemical propulsion for decades. But a new generation of electric and green-propellant thrusters is changing the economics of satellite operations. Lucas and Luna examine why startup Apollo Fusion is winning contracts from legacy players, how electric propulsion cuts launch costs by reducing satellite mass, and what the shift means for satellite lifespan a...

Episode 69 of Space Business with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna dive into the business model of Stoke Space, a small rocket startup trying to challenge SpaceX with a fully reusable medium-lift vehicle. They discuss Stoke's unique architecture—a second stage that survives reentry intact—their funding strategy of $175 million raised so far, and the market gap they aim to fill: dedicated launches for mid-s...

Episode 68 of Space Business with Fexingo digs into the booming market for government satellite imagery contracts. Lucas breaks down how the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office has shifted from owning its own satellites to buying data from commercial providers like Maxar, Planet Labs, and BlackSky. Luna asks whether this creates a dependency risk for national security. The hosts explore a recent $...

By June 2026, the FCC's five-year deorbit rule for low-Earth orbit satellites is now a binding financial constraint. Lucas and Luna examine how operators like SpaceX, OneWeb, and Amazon's Project Kuiper are factoring end-of-life disposal into their constellation economics — from propulsion costs to insurance premiums to the emerging market for deorbit services. They break down the math: a Starlink...

Episode 66 of Space Business with Fexingo digs into a shift happening right now: moving AI computation from ground servers onto satellites themselves. Lucas and Luna explore why companies like NVIDIA, AMD, and European startups are racing to put neural-network chips in orbit. They walk through the specific bottleneck: low-earth orbit satellites generate terabytes of data daily but can only downlin...

Lucas and Luna explore the overlooked bottleneck in the satellite internet boom: ground stations. As Starlink and OneWeb push tens of thousands of satellites into orbit, the number of earth stations needed to relay data is growing exponentially. Lucas explains why a single ground station costs millions to build, how real estate near fiber backbones is becoming scarce, and why companies like Amazon...

Lucas and Luna explore the emerging business of in-orbit servicing: refueling, repairing, and repositioning satellites that would otherwise become space junk. They focus on two companies leading the charge: Astroscale, which recently demonstrated a successful fuel-transfer test between two spacecraft, and Orbit Fab, which has secured contracts worth over $30 million from the U.S. Space Force for i...

Spaceports are emerging as a surprising new asset class in commercial real estate. In this episode, Lucas breaks down how launch sites from Cape Canaveral to Wallops Island to commercial spaceports in Texas are seeing dramatic land valuation increases. He reveals that the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll saw a 300 percent increase in lease value over the past five years, and private spaceport o...

Episode 62 of Space Business with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna explore how satellite data is revolutionizing ocean shipping. They focus on a specific case: the 2021 Suez Canal blockage and how real-time satellite tracking is now being used to avoid similar chokepoints. Lucas breaks down how companies like Windward and Spire use AIS data combined with weather and port congestion analytics to save shippi...

With the International Space Station scheduled for deorbit in 2030, a new generation of commercial space stations is moving from concept to construction. This episode focuses on one specific case: Axiom Space's plan to attach its first module to the ISS in 2027, then detach to form a free-flying commercial station. We break down the economics—Axiom's estimated $1.5 billion in development costs, NA...

Episode 60 of Space Business with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna explore the emerging commercial market for nuclear power in space. With NASA and DARPA pushing fission reactors for lunar and Mars missions, a handful of startups are adapting these technologies for commercial satellites and orbital data centers. The hosts break down the specific case of one startup, Radiant Nuclear, which is developing a c...

In this episode of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how satellite imagery and remote sensing are transforming the carbon credit market. They focus on a specific case: Pachama, a startup using satellite data to verify forest carbon offsets. Lucas breaks down how traditional verification methods are expensive and error-prone, while satellite data offers transparency and scale. The...

Episode 58 of Space Business with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna explore the emerging market for satellite constellation insurance. As commercial operators like Starlink and OneWeb launch thousands of spacecraft, traditional single-satellite policies no longer apply. The hosts break down how insurers are building new risk models for mega-constellations—covering collision avoidance, space weather, and orb...

Carbon markets are booming, but verifying emissions reductions has always been a trust problem. Lucas and Luna explore how a new generation of satellite-based monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) companies is solving that. They focus on the case of Chloris Geospatial, a startup using hyperspectral imagery to measure forest carbon stocks from orbit. The hosts break down the technology, the...

Space debris is no longer just an engineering problem — it's a growing commercial opportunity. In this episode, Lucas and Luna examine the emerging market for orbital debris removal, from legal liability questions to the first paying customers. They break down the economics of a single cleanup mission, compare the business models of startups like Astroscale and ClearSpace, and ask whether governme...

In this episode of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging market for satellite spectrum rights. With thousands of new satellites launching into low Earth orbit, the radio frequency spectrum they use is becoming increasingly contested. The hosts focus on the case of Ligado Networks, which spent over a decade and billions of dollars trying to repurpose L-band spectrum for s...