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

Episode 54 of Space Business with Fexingo dives into the overlooked but critical business of satellite thermal control. Lucas and Luna explore how companies like Redwire and Lockheed Martin are building advanced radiators, heat pipes, and deployable shades to keep spacecraft cool in the harsh thermal vacuum of orbit. With satellite constellations growing and components shrinking, thermal managemen...

In this episode of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the economics of asteroid mining, focusing on the practical steps companies are taking today. They discuss the recent successful test of a resource extraction system by a private firm, the regulatory framework under the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, and the potential market for water and platinum-group metals...

Most people think you call SpaceX or Arianespace directly to launch a satellite. In reality, a growing number of satellite operators go through launch brokers — middlemen who aggregate demand, negotiate bulk deals, and manage the complex logistics of getting a payload to orbit. This episode breaks down how a company called Spaceflight Inc. pioneered the model, how brokers make money (typically 5-1...

In this episode of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging economics of space-based solar power. They focus on a recent feasibility study from the European Space Agency that found a single orbiting solar array could deliver 2 gigawatts of baseload power to Earth by 2035 at a cost competitive with nuclear. The hosts break down the key breakthroughs—wireless power transmissi...

Episode 50 of Space Business with Fexingo dives into the fast-growing intersection of satellite imagery and agricultural insurance. Lucas and Luna explore how companies like Descartes Labs and Planet Labs are using hyper-spectral imaging to assess crop health, verify claims, and even predict yields before planting season ends. They break down a specific case: a 2025 drought in Kansas where satelli...

In this episode of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the growing economic impact of satellite collision risks in low Earth orbit. With over 10,000 active satellites and millions of debris fragments, operators now face higher insurance premiums, mandatory collision-avoidance maneuvers, and new regulatory pressures. Lucas breaks down how a single 2025 collision involving an Iridium...

Remember when satellite TV meant a dish on your roof and 500 channels? That business is imploding. But the satellites themselves—and the spectrum they use—are becoming something far more valuable: data relay hubs for IoT, maritime tracking, and even military communications. Lucas and Luna dive into how EchoStar, SES, and Intelsat are pivoting from broadcasting to 'space-based trunking,' and why th...

Most people think satellite propulsion is just little thrusters. But the market for electric propulsion, green monopropellants, and chemical thrusters is now over $7 billion and growing at 15 percent compound annual growth rate. Lucas and Luna explore why satellite operators are willing to pay a premium for faster orbit raising, collision avoidance, and end-of-life disposal. They examine the shift...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging business of asteroid mining. They break down the economics of resource extraction from near-Earth asteroids, focusing on the key players like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, the technological hurdles, and the potential market for platinum group metals and water. Lucas explains why the cost of launching equipment is dropping while...

Lucas and Luna dive into the growing market for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites — a technology that can see through clouds and darkness. They break down the business case using Capella Space as a concrete example: its recent contract with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the unit economics of a small SAR satellite versus optical imagery, and why defense and intelligence customers...

Lucas and Luna drill into the fast-growing market for satellite-based carbon dioxide and methane monitoring. The episode anchors on a specific number: the global carbon monitoring satellite market is projected to reach $5.7 billion by 2030, up from roughly $1.2 billion in 2025. They walk through how startups like GHGSat and Kayrros are selling emissions data to oil and gas companies, regulators, a...

In this episode of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into the real business case behind satellite internet constellations. They break down the unit economics of a typical broadband satellite, comparing capital costs versus lifetime revenue, and examine why Starlink's scale gives it a structural advantage over newcomers like Amazon's Project Kuiper and Telesat. They also discuss the...

Lucas and Luna explore the business of radio occultation — the satellite technique that reads GPS signals bending through the atmosphere to produce hyper-accurate weather data. They focus on the specific case of Spire Global, a company that operates over 100 small satellites providing atmospheric profiles to NOAA, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and private clients. Spire's...

Episode 41 of Space Business with Fexingo dives into the emerging market for satellite servicing: extending the life of aging spacecraft, refueling, repair, and debris removal. Lucas and Luna break down the economics using the case of Intelsat's recent deal with Astroscale to refuel a satellite in geostationary orbit. They explore why operators are finally paying for services that were dismissed a...

In Episode 40 of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the surprising economic shift happening at spaceports. Beyond launch pads, places like Cape Canaveral and Boca Chica are attracting venture capital, real estate development, and tech startups that have nothing to do with rockets. Using the example of Spaceport America's recent $200 million infrastructure bond — backed by local ta...

In this episode of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging economics of space tourism. With Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX all flying paying passengers, the industry is shifting from billionaire joyrides to a potential billion-dollar market. Lucas breaks down the numbers: how much it costs to fly, who's paying, and what the break-even point looks like for operato...

Episode 38 of Space Business with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna break down why small satellites—not the traditional multi-billion-dollar birds—are quietly dominating defense and intelligence contracts. They examine the pivot from capability-maximizing payloads to proliferated, resilient constellations, using concrete examples like the Space Development Agency's Tranche 1 and the shift in Pentagon procur...

Lucas and Luna dive into the rising cost of launch insurance, a trend shaking up the commercial space industry as of mid-2026. They examine the numbers: premiums that have doubled in four years, a hardening market after a string of high-profile failures in 2024 and 2025, and how smaller operators are getting squeezed. The hosts trace the shift from the early 2020s when launch insurance was a manag...

Space insurance premiums have jumped 300% since 2020 as the satellite population surges and launch failures become more common. Lucas and Luna unpack the real numbers behind the rate spike, the underwriters who are pulling out of the market, and why some operators are self-insuring instead. They walk through a specific claim from last year's Vega-C anomaly, the new actuarial models that factor in...

Space debris is no longer just an engineering headache—it's becoming a commercial market. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down the economics of orbital cleanup, focusing on a specific case: ClearSpace's planned 2028 mission to remove a 100-kilogram piece of debris from low Earth orbit. They discuss the cost structures, the regulatory hurdles, and why insurers are starting to pay attention. L...

Episode 34 of Space Business with Fexingo drills into the emerging economics of lunar resource extraction. Lucas and Luna break down why the Moon's water ice, rare earths, and helium-3 are attracting serious venture capital and government funding, not just sci-fi hype. They examine the specific numbers: the estimated cost to mine one ton of water from the lunar south pole, the projected market for...

Episode 33 of Space Business with Fexingo examines the emerging business of in-space manufacturing. Lucas and Luna break down the economics using Redwire's 3D printing experiments on the ISS and Varda Space Industries' planned drug-manufacturing capsules. They discuss the cost benefits of producing fiber optics and pharmaceuticals in microgravity, the role of NASA's Commercial LEO Destinations pro...

In this episode of Space Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the rapidly growing business of spaceport real estate. They discuss how coastal and inland launch sites are becoming prime assets for investors and launch operators alike. With the recent lease of a new spaceport in Alaska and the expansion of existing facilities in Texas and New Mexico, the hosts break down the economics behin...

Episode 31 of Space Business with Fexingo dives into the critical business and technology challenge of satellite collision avoidance. Lucas and Luna explore why the growing density of megaconstellations makes human-in-the-loop decision-making obsolete, and how companies like LeoLabs and private firms are building AI-driven autonomous systems to prevent catastrophic collisions. They break down the...

Episode 30 of Space Business with Fexingo dives into the economics of satellite swarms — large constellations of small, cheap satellites working together. Lucas and Luna break down how companies like Planet Labs have used dozens of CubeSats to image the entire Earth daily, and why the approach is spreading to communications and defense. They discuss the cost per satellite, the trade-offs against t...