Valley of Depth

In the final Pathfinder episode of the year, Mo brings Payload’s editorial staff into the hot seat(s) to discuss the most significant stories of 2023 and share predictions for 2024! In addition to each team member’s trajectory to Payload, we discuss: The shortage in launch supply Starship and the mainstream media’s reaction The Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing (and other Moon-related news) The state of...

Every quarter, Lux Capital, a leading venture capital firm known for investing in hard science and deep tech startups, publishes their investor letter offering a unique opportunity to gain insight into the firm's investment thesis and strategy. The firm has been an early supporter of the space industry with early bets in companies like Relativity Space, Epsilon3, Impulse Space, Astranis, Kymeta, V...

Modern engineering teams need to look radically different, at least according to Pari Singh, Founder and CEO of Flow Engineering. Flow, a London and LA-based startup, aims to overhaul traditional engineering approaches with its collaboration platform, specifically tailored for 'new age' hardware teams. Flow provides a collaborative platform for hardware and software teams, streamlining requirement...

The US manufacturing industry needs a major overhaul and companies like Machina Labs are helping drive that change. Today’s Pathfinder episode features Ed Mehr, cofounder and CEO of Machina Labs, a startup integrating the latest advancements in robotics and AI to construct next-generation factories. Mehr's prior experience at Relativity includes overseeing the development of Stargate, which was th...

Since stints at Airbus and ArianeGroup, Hélène Huby has shifted her focus to developing the Nyx spacecraft, Europe’s first privately funded cargo and crew capsule - a significant step for ESA’s future in the global space race. As of now, Europe does not have its own operational cargo or crew capsule and has relied on the capabilities of the US and Russia. Huby has already made significant progress...

Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis knows what went wrong during Terran 1’s first flight—and he shared with Payload why he is confident the same thing won’t happen to the startup’s Terran R rocket. What’s next: After the March flight, Relativity announced that it was scrapping Terran 1 development to focus solely on its larger Terran R vehicle. Ellis emphasized that this shift is not merely about scali...

ABL Space is heading back to the pad after a power failure prevented its maiden launch attempt from reaching orbit last January. The company, known for its innovative approach to ground infrastructure by containerizing its launch system, aims to launch its RS1 rocket by the year's end. This week's Pathfinder podcast features Dan Piemont, the cofounder, President, and CFO of the LA-based launch sta...

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...

Today’s Pathfinder episode features Leon Alkalai, former Technical Fellow of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and now the founder of Mandala Space Ventures. Having spent 32 years at JPL, we dive into his leadership roles for the GRAIL mission in 2007, which mapped the Moon's gravitational field and the Insight Lander in 2012, a first of its kind mission aimed at exploring Mars' deep interior...

Today’s Pathfinder episode features Will Coffield, cofounder and General Partner of Riot Ventures. Riot has a proclivity for investing in early-stage companies with transformative tech ideologies dedicated to revolutionizing traditional industries. Today’s conversation also features the space and space-adjacent companies that Riot has invested in including True Anomaly, Integrate, and Azimuth. In...

Today’s Pathfinder episode brings in Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, hot on the heels of the U.S. Space Force’s VICTUS NOX mission success. Bill shares insights on the prep work that propelled the mission, with a nod to his past life helming a public company. The discussion offers a glimpse into the meticulous planning and execution required in modern space missions.  In addition, Mo and Bil...

Today’s Pathfinder episode features Chris Celtruda, CEO of Valence Surface Technologies and Operating Executive at ATL Partners. With over 30 years of leadership experience, Chris offers a masterclass on scaling aerospace & defense businesses and implementing successful management styles. In addition, Mo and Chris chat:  Chris' experience building multiple A&D businesses ATL Partners’ new focus on...

There’s a growing demand for streamlined communication and collaboration tools in the space industry. Integrate Space, based in Seattle, is tackling this challenge head-on. Co-founded by John Conafay, a veteran with ties to the USAF, ABL, Spaceflight, and Astranis, the startup aims to modernize program management, offering digital solutions to track development schedules, coordinate missions, and...

Space's unique environment holds vast potential for biotech advancements, Mark Kugel, co-CEO and cofounder of German space biotech company Yuri, told Payload.   Why space? In this week’s Pathfinder podcast, Mark says that space changes biological systems in commercially valuable ways: – Complex Cell Development: Enhanced growth results in superior organoids, optimizing drug testing and tissue engi...

The clock is ticking on Voyager’s aspirations in LEO. In 2021, the Denver-based space exploration company announced its goal to launch a commercial space station by 2028, three years ahead of the ISS retirement. Clay Mowry, the chief revenue officer of Voyager Space and one of the driving forces behind that vision, joins Pathfinder this week to dive into the company’s plans to build infrastructure...

This week’s Pathfinder podcast features Chris Kemp, the founder and CEO of Astra, the publicly-traded launch company based out of Alameda, CA that went public via SPAC in the summer 2021.  Since then, Astra's valuation has seen a dramatic decline, plummeting from a peak of approximately $4B to a mere $67M today. Chris paints a vivid picture of two contrasting narratives. On one hand, there's a sat...

This week’s Pathfinder podcast features the CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation, Anousheh Ansari – our first guest who’s actually been to space (it’s shocking to us too that it’s taken this long). After immigrating to the United States from Iran as a teenager, she co-founded Telecom Technologies, a telecommunication company that integrated voice and data. In 2006, she became the first first-privately fun...

What do a baseball enthusiast, a craft beer podcast host, and a space journalist have in common? A role at Payload! Today's Pathfinder podcast features a very special guest: Payload’s very own Managing Editor, Jacqueline Feldscher.  Fresh out of college, Jacqueline aspired to become a sports reporter, but D.C. soon drew her into the worlds of policy, national security, and, fortuitously for us, sp...

Nuclear technology is having its moment, according to Zeno Power cofounder and CEO Tyler Bernstein. NASA has used radioisotope tech since the 1960s, but the systems have historically been too expensive and heavy to be widely used. Zeno Power, which develops radioisotope power systems (RPS) that are lighter, more efficient, and more cost-effective than legacy systems, is trying to change that. How...

This week’s Pathfinder podcast features  Dr. Ellen Stofan, the Under Secretary of Science and Research at the Smithsonian. She oversees its science research centers and the National Air and Space Museum, National Museum of Natural History and the National Zoo. Dr. Ellen Stofan is an American geologist and former NASA scientist who specialized in the geology of Venus, Mars, and Saturn's moon Titan....

What does a space station, a lunar lander, a nuclear reactor, and a fleet of cislunar space vehicles have in common? They’re all part of serial space entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian’s holding company IBX. IBX consists of: Axiom Space , which provides private flights to the ISS and is also developing a commercial space station. Intuitive Machines , which is developing autonomous lunar landing systems....

Picture a world where you can complete your 6-month engineering project in just 6 weeks by removing typical bottlenecks in your workflows. That’s what cofounder and CEO of Prewitt Ridge Steve Massey believes his company can help both government and commercial stakeholders of the space industry achieve. Enter Prewitt Ridge: Prewitt Ridge is a software company that helps engineers manage engineering...

Today’s Pathfinder episode features AstroForge cofounder and CEO Matt Gialich. The CA-based startup is developing technology to mine asteroids for platinum group metals. The company plans to use an uncrewed spacecraft to extract and refine the metals directly on the asteroid before returning to Earth with a sellable metal. Why platinum? The platinum group metals have unique physical and chemical p...

Today’s Pathfinder episode features Phantom Space cofounder and CEO Jim Cantrell. The Tucson-based space transportation company is focused on the mass production of rockets. Jim began his career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the French Space Agency (CNES), working on Mars exploration technologies and a joint French-Soviet Mars program​​. He was a founding member of SpaceX, serving as its first...

While warfare used to mean dropping bombs and shooting bullets, modern conflict is increasingly seeing actors targeting an adversaries’ critical infrastructure with cyberattacks.  The number of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure perpetrated or sponsored by nation-states doubled from 20% to 40% between July 2021 and June 2022, according to Microsoft . The US is particularly vulnerable since th...