Valley of Depth

VLEO is a term that you don’t hear everyday in the space industry. It refers to “Very Low Earth Orbit,” a region of space that’s roughly twice as close to Earth’s surface as the commonly-used LEO, or “Low Earth Orbit,” where most companies are building their satellite constellations.  But not Albedo.  The Austin, TX- and Denver, CO-based startup is changing the architecture of Earth Observation (E...

How do you get Blackrock to lead your $140M funding round? You’ll have to listen to Loft Orbital's CEO and cofounder, Pierre-Damien Vaujour, to find out. The SF-based company provides a turnkey solution for launching, deploying, and operating small satellites, giving more players access to space. Loft’s business model could be most simplified as a fulfillment model for the space industry. The comp...

Tom Mueller is best known for his instrumental role at SpaceX as propulsion CTO, but he’s now turned his sights to his new venture, Impulse Space. Founded in 2021, Impulse aims to provide reliable and economical in-space transportation services. The company services include GEO/GTO/LEO logistics, in-orbit servicing, spacecraft life extension, active debris removal, and situational awareness. The c...

Space travel is about to get a lot more accessible. At least, that’s what Space Perspective cofounders and co-CEOs Taber MacCallum and Jane Poynter are saying. The company’s aim is to provide the quintessential astronaut experience to as many people as possible, focusing not on the rocket ride or microgravity, but on the view of Earth from space. In today’s Pathfinder podcast, Mo chats with both T...

In today’s Pathfinder podcast, host Mo Islam chats with cofounder and CEO of True Anomaly, Even Rogers. Before founding True Anomaly, Even held a number of different space jobs, including Air Force space operations officer, where he helped lay the foundation for the establishment of the Space Force. While serving, he witnessed a shift within the space community from focusing on counterinsurgency o...

You need to be paying attention to the space industry. Why? Because Payload Cofounder Ari Lewis has finally agreed to be a guest on Pathfinder.  You’ve probably seen Ari in his natural habitat: flying around the country to events and conferences, sporting his trademark Payload baseball cap, helping companies understand why they need to partner with Payload. But today, the lifeblood of Payload’s sa...

Today, Pathfinder unveils an industry exclusive. An influential trio – Major General (Ret.) Kim Crider, Eddie Papczun, and Mike Dickey – veterans of A&D, have come together to launch Elara Nova, a consulting firm meticulously crafted to cater to the ever-expanding space industry. With illustrious careers under their belts, these three have held distinguished positions in the Air Force and Space Fo...

When Shey Sabripour moved to Austin, TX, more than a decade ago, he was immediately struck by the city's laid-back lifestyle and impressive talent pool (we imagine the Tex Mex didn’t hurt either). After spending a few years as CTO of local Texas startup Firefly Aerospace, Shey couldn’t resist the entrepreneurial itch any longer. Instead of following the commercial space industry flock to Los Angel...

Today, the Pathfinder podcast brings you a conversation with Kirk Konert, a partner at AE Industrial Partners (AEI) focusing primarily on space and defense. Kirk joined AEI in 2014 just as the firm was institutionalizing and scaling its investment offering. Before AEI, Kirk worked at Sun Capital Partners, a private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts, and at Wells Fargo’s Industrials Gro...

Today, the Pathfinder podcast brings on its first sibling/cofounder duo. Before founding K2, CEO Karan spent a decade at Boston Consulting Group and helped lead Text IQ, an artificial intelligence company, through to a nine-figure exit. CTO Neel spent 6 years at SpaceX developing avionics systems for the Dragon spacecraft and then went on to become a senior electrical systems engineer at electric...

Ian Cinnamon is the CEO and Co-founder of Apex Space, a startup manufacturing satellite buses in the 100-kilogram class that can support ~100 kgs of payload. It aims to sell Aries, its first product, into the commercial space market and support EO and communications missions. Apex says Aries will be available as an off-the-shelf platform that can be configured with specific subsystems to support c...

Last Friday, Payload moderated the “Beyond LEO” panel at the MIT Sloan New Space Age Conference in Cambridge. Joining us were: Will Hovik, engineering lead @ Honeybee Robotics; Kevin Duda, senior space systems manager @ Draper Laboratory; Forrest Meyen, cofounder and CSO of Lunar Outpost; and Blair DeWitt, the founder and CEO of Lunar Station. Today's Pathfinder is brought to you by Kepler Communi...

Today, we’re bringing you a live podcast from South by Southwest that was recorded Tuesday at the SkyFi Summit.  Pathfinder #0039 is brought to you by Kepler Communications, a company bringing the internet to space— find out more at www.kepler.space Bear in mind that four guests at once is a new format for us, but the convo that follows is funny, fast-moving, and definitely worth your while. On-st...

Joe Laurienti is the CEO and cofounder of Ursa Major, a company that builds and sells propulsion products for A) launch, B) hypersonics, and C) in-space transportation.  Joe cut his teeth at SpaceX and Blue Origin before setting out on his own and starting Ursa Major in 2015. The Colorado company raised $85M in December 2021 and started ramping engine production last year. It has two bigger, badde...

In today’s episode, we welcome on Joel Spark, cofounder and chief satellite architect at Spire. The “space-to-cloud” data and analytics provider flys a proprietary constellation of 100+ nanosatellites to collect and analyze data from Earth. The data spans weather forecasting, maritime domain awareness, aviation, and more. Spire is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and currently has a...

Today, the Pathfinder podcast brings on its first married cofounder duo. Pathfinder #0036 is brought to you by Kepler Communications, a company bringing the internet to space. Find out more at https://kepler.space/ Our guests today are Seyka and Brian Mejeur, the cofounders of AdAstra , an executive and technical headhunting firm primarily for space technology startups.  Seyka, AdAstra’s CEO, draw...

When he was a senior Pentagon official, Charles (or Chuck) Beames and his fellow military planners would speak forebodingly about “a day without space.” The nightmare scenario would involve a wide-ranging attack, kinetic or otherwise, on space systems, which could produce cascading communications and navigation failures for the armed forces (and wreak havoc on civilian technology systems as well)....

Let's talk about geodesic dome habitats, concert halls in microgravity, space cathedrals, and a real-life Starfleet Academy. Our guest, Ariel Ekblaw, has been thinking about these topics and actively prototyping these ideas for a long time. Ultimately, she leads a number of initiatives focused on preparing humanity to become a thriving space-faring species.  Bio in brief: Ariel is director of the...

On today’s episode, we sit down with AJ Piplica, cofounder and CEO of Hermeus Corporation. The Atlanta startup aims to make hypersonic air travel a reality before the decade is out. AJ dialed into Pathfinder straight from the belly of the beast, i.e., Hermeus’s factory in Atlanta, which was abuzz with employees and machines whirling in the background.  Today’s episode is brought to you by Altek Sp...

Today, Pathfinder turns the complexity up a notch by simultaneously welcoming two speakers onto the show.  Matt Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau research, write, and develop coursework at the intersection of space and economics. They teach MBA students at a business school just outside of Boston (why yes, we are indeed referring to Harvard Business School).  Today’s episode is brought to you by Altek...

Jim served as the 13th administrator of NASA and spearheaded the launch of the Artemis program. During Jim’s watch, the US also returned to launching its own astronauts to orbit from US soil (with SpaceX). Jim’s bio will be familiar to most space buffs in Payload and Pathfinder’s audience, so in our convo, we dig a bit deeper on his backstory, get a status report on Artemis, and take a closer look...

For his first Pathfinder podcast of 2023, Ryan took a field trip to San Francisco to visit the 120,000-square foot digs of Astranis. Today's episode is brought to you by Altek Space , a custom manufacturer of essential parts and components for rockets and satellites. *SNEAK PEEK* For the uninitiated, Astranis aims to build small, cost-effective GEO satellites that will beam targeted chunks of broa...

Today's episode is sponsored by Altek Space, which provides custom manufacturing of essential parts and components for rockets and satellites (including SmallSats). Find out more at https://www.altek-inc.com/space Our guest host is Tess Hatch, a former aerospace engineer and current partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, where she invests in all things deep tech with a particular focus on the space...

What’s it like running a $11 billion dollar space business at a publicly traded company and managing a team of nearly 22,000? Or what about building the Orion spacecraft that just finished a 25-day trip around the Moon, and will carry astronauts on its next mission? In Pathfinder #0028, we'll get the answers to those questions and a whole lot more with Robert Lightfoot, the executive vice presiden...

What if you could cut the time for data to be relayed from space to Earth from half an hour to milliseconds? That’s the vision of Hedron. Formerly known as Analytical Space, Hedron is developing a network of data relay satellites that it says “will connect space to Earth in real-time.” Hedron raised a nearly $18M Series A last year and brought on a new management team, including now-COO Katherine...