Spaceports should become a bigger business going forward if all goes well in the space sector and we will have ever more rockets launching from ever more locations. This is why some private companies are now getting into this market. One of them is Maritime Launch from Canada, who are developing a spaceport in Novia Scotia. My guest this week, Founder & CEO Stephen Matier, will tell us all about what it takes to build a spaceport, operate it, and much more. Enjoy!

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• SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" is available in e-book, paperback and audiobook formats - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

Timestamps:

A City on Mars: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought this through? – That is the title of a book published in late 2023 which then became an instant NY Times bestseller and went on to win a 2024 Hugo Award. My guest this week is Kelly Weinersmith, one of its two authors, together with her husband. The book is a critical, and humorously written, examination of the question of whether humanity should settle space. It touches on everything ranging from legal aspects all the way to having babies in Space. For me as a die-hard proponent of humanity settling in space, this was a fun and insightful conversation to have. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, too!

https://www.acityonmars.com/

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• SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" is available in e-book, paperback and audiobook formats - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

Open Cosmos is a prominent European new space startup providing and operating satellites. They recently won a EUR60MM contract to build a remote sensing constellation for the Greek government, beating out strong and established competitors. Their co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Jordi Barrera Ars is my guest. Enjoy!

Follow us:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/

Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/

• SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" is available in e-book, paperback and audiobook formats - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

Timestamps:

00:00 Countdown 00:10 Episode intro 00:33 Podcast intro 01:45 Elevator Pitch 02:32 Challenges in Space Missions 03:40 Data Cosmos: Simplifying Space Data 03:53 Evolution of the Space Industry 12:33 Open Constellation Concept 13:39 Customer Collaboration and Data Utilization 20:41 Marketplace of Applications 24:14 Economic Advantages of Asset Optimization 29:40 Customer Use Cases and Exciting Projects 30:15 Innovations in Satellite Payloads 32:18 Challenges and Opportunities in Space Data 35:11 Future Steps for Open Cosmos 36:45 Real-Time Data Delivery and Industry Trends 44:23 The Impact of Starship on the Space Sector 47:27 Trustworthy Data 49:20 Favorite Sci-Fi

HEO, a space startup from Australia, uses sensors on-orbit to identify, characterize and monitor space objects at scale. Objects such as debris, but also active satellites. You can imagine there are a number of civil and defense use cases here. So-called Space Situational Awareness is a big topic these days. HEO’s founder & CEO Will Crowe is one of the best people to talk about it. Enjoy!

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• SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" is available in e-book, paperback and audiobook formats - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

Timestamps:

00:00 Countdown 00:10 Episode intro 00:42 Podcast intro 01:27 Introducing Will Crow and HEO's Mission 02:48 HEO's Origin Story and Initial Focus on Asteroids 04:20 Commercial and National Security Use Cases 07:11 Recent Events and National Security Concerns 10:42 Challenges and Countermeasures in Space Monitoring 15:54 Customer Journey and Tasking Process 17:51 Leveraging Existing Satellites and Partnerships 23:58 Future Prospects and Monetizing Observation Time 25:02 Understanding Spatial Resolution in Space Observation 25:44 The Importance of High-Resolution Imaging 27:42 Video vs. Still Images in Space Observation 28:39 Data Handling and Analysis in Space Observation 31:36 Regulatory Challenges and Opportunities 37:20 Future Prospects and Technological Innovations 42:22 Long-Term Vision and Sci-Fi 46:16 Closing Remarks and Wrap-Up

Relativity Space, from Long Beach, California, is probably one the best-known launch startups in the world. They had a partially successful launch of their Terran One rocket last year, are now working towards the launch of the much larger Terran R, have 1200 employees and raised over $1bn in funding. My guest is their President & CFO Mo Shahzad and we talk about all things Relativity but also a little about the launch market in general. Enjoy!

Follow us:

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• SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro 2:30 Relativity Space summary 5:13 Mo's career incl. switching to the space sector 7:00 Acting as a "translator" 13:00 Discussing difficulties with clients 17:38 Hiring 22:00 Steps on the way to Mars 28:32 Production and flight cadence 31:18 Pricing 34:00 Relativity in the broader launch market 38:31 Rideshare 40:50 Ancillary products 43:30 Vision 45:48 Interesting things in commercial space 49:00 Sci-Fi

This week we are talking about KickSky, the first incubator for Indian space startups, which is having the demo day of its first cohort on 8-May. I am talking to Ankit Anand, Partner of Riceberg Ventures and a co-founder of KickSky. We talk about why the timing is right for an Indian space incubator, what the incubation program looks like, and many other things. For full disclosure, E2MC, the space venture fund where I am partner, is also part of KickSky. If you have any interest in Indian space, don’t miss this episode!

If you are:

- an Indian startup interested in applying to KickSky - interested in becoming a mentor at KickSky - interested in joining KickSky's investor network please go to https://www.kicksky.space

Follow us:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/

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• SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro 2:19 Ankit's background and the Indian space ecosystem 13:34 Space Sector in India - Government & commercial 17:34 Kicksky's structure and program 26:22 Mentoring 31:16 Demo-day and practical examples 37:12 Experience of being an incubator 40:01 Future plans 43:08 Apply to Kicksky 43:37 Sci-fi

Johannes Torpe is a well-known Danish designer who, among many other things, was the Creative Director at Bang & Olufsen, and once owned a space-themed night club called NASA. He is passionate about what he calls “domesticating space” – bringing space closer to people at large, beyond the existing space community. We met at Spacecom in Orlando earlier this year and finally had a chance to schedule a podcast episode to talk about all this. Enjoy!

https://www.johannestorpe.com/

Golden space suit event: https://www.designindaba.com/videos/conference-talks/danish-designer-johannes-torpe-power-design-create-universes

Follow us:

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• SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.

Timestamps

0:00 Intro 2:36 Johannes's background 6:05 Golden space suit entry 11:15 Connecting people to the Space Renaissance 18:42 Domesticating Space 21:50 The Space Mountain Case and Space "Retroism" 27:22 Potential ways of inspiring people 31:06 Hotels & Resorts 34:15 "Edutainment" 37:07 NASA Nightclub 42:36 Space & the arts 47:57 Current space-related projects 53:49 Sci-fi

PLD Space is a Spanish launch startup. Last October, they successfully completed a suborbital test flight of their Miura-1 rocket. We talk about that flight, their future plans on the way to orbital launch, the launch market at large, and many other things, with my guest, PLD’s CFO, José Manuel Rodríguez. Enjoy!

https://www.pldspace.com/en/ Follow us:

Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/raphaelroettgen/

Instagram - www.instagram.com/raphael_space/

• SPACE ECONOMY BOOK: Raphael's fully revised introductory book on the Space economy, "To Infinity" - https://a.co/d/6jIQ2LO
• Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
• Upcoming newsletter - sign up: https://spacebusiness.substack.com/

The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro 2:20 Elevator Pitch 6:05 European access to space 9:17 Business Model 13:17 Specs 18:10 Rocket engines 19:20 Production capacity 20:54 Scaling up 23:41 Europe vs. other markets 25:50 Customers 28:50 Gaining trust with customers 33:27 User guide 35:40 Launch market 39:10 Sovereign launch 42:08 Spaceports 44:18 Orbits 47:00 Future milestones 49:45 Team 53:38 Other interesting space activities 55:30 Sci-Fi