Space Business Podcast
Space is rapidly growing into an exciting ecosystem for business. In this podcast we hear from entrepreneurs, executives, investors and others about the many opportunities that exist. This podcast is produced by the Space Business Institute in partnership with the International Space University.
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Episodes
Friday Dec 09, 2022
Friday Dec 09, 2022
Dan Katz is the co-founder and CEO of Orbital Sidekick, a San Francisco-based company deploying a constellation of hyperspectral remote sensing satellites. Among other things, I talk to Dan about the capabilities and use cases of this exciting technology. Enjoy!
Follow us:
https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Instagram: @raphael_space
Learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
There is now a certificate for those wanting to enter the space sector: https://www.spacecertificate.com
Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven: https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro2:14 Elevator Pitch3:55 What is Hyperspectral Earth Observation?10:16 Multispectral vs. Hyperspectral vs. ... Ultraspectral(?) 14:40 The upper bounds of spectral resolution18:55 Operating at night time and under cloud cover22:43 Data and onboard processing27:15 Business Model30:50 Coverage31:52 Resolution36:28 Pipeline leaks as a use case40:14 Orbital Sidekick's satellites45:43 Selling to non-space customers48:37 Vision for the company52:42 Origin story56:05 Space trends58:00 Sci-Fi
Friday Nov 25, 2022
Friday Nov 25, 2022
Egbert Jan van der Veen is the head of strategy of well-known, publicly-listed German space company OHB. He’s also the head of their corporate venture capital arm, which has invested in a number of well-known space companies, including some that have been on this podcast. So he has a really good view of the space sector in general and also specifically about space startups. Enjoy!
Btw, happy Thanksgivings holiday to our many listeners in the U.S.!
Learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven: https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:22 Egbert's background
5:39 Space in 2010
9:09 The OHB experience
10:38 Engineering vs. Business
11:47 What is OHB?
15:15 Vertical integration and supply chain
17:30 Cubesats and Smallsats
20:27 Vertical integration and demand
25:27 The DNA of OHB
28:12 Opportunities in satellite components
32:10 Noteworthy trends on satellite integration
34:30 The Software side of things
36:09 Rockets
40:33 OHB name origin
41:45 OHB Ventures
44:17 What kind of opportunities OHB is looking for
47:09 Disruptive Space tech in 2022
49:20 Sci-Fi
Friday Nov 04, 2022
Friday Nov 04, 2022
Our guest this week is Jaume Sanpera, CEO & founder of Sateliot, a Barcelona-based startup providing IOT connectivity from space. IOT is an interesting market which various startups (and established companies) are tackling and we discuss current and future use cases, what technology Sateliot uses, how it is executing its go-to-market, and many other things. You will not want to miss this one. Enjoy!
Sateliot's job board: https://sateliot.space/en/careers/
The English version of Raphael's introductory book to the space economy will be out very soon. There continue to be the Portuguese ("Para cima") and German ("Hoch Hinaus") editions.
Learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven: https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro2:23 Elevator Pitch3:47 The comparison with satellite-to-mobile 6:29 Details on system architecture9:29 Space Debris10:09 Ground based infrastructure14:42 Data and use cases22:32 Spectrum rights26:33 First coverage areas28:12 Customer acquisition34:42 Pricing and what matters to customers37:27 Ocean-based use cases41:55 10-year vision43:20 Challenges for the sector46:22 Origin story48:53 Advice on space business50:17 Sateliot is hiring51:40 What else is interesting in space52:45 Sci-Fi
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
Sunday Oct 30, 2022
The English version of my introductory book to the space economy is finally about to come out. In this special episode, I read the introductory chapter for you.
Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven: https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro4:43 Book preview - introductory chapter, read by Raphael
Saturday Oct 22, 2022
Saturday Oct 22, 2022
My guest Ole Dokka probably knows the Norwegian space ecosystem like nobody else. He is the organizer of the Spaceport Norway conference, which will take place in Oslo next week. We talk about what is going on in space in Norway, including the Andøya spaceport, and of course also about the conference. Enjoy!
Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven: https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI. Stay tuned for the English translation, which should come out soon.
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:06 Ole's background
4:35 Transitioning from corporate life to the space sector
7:03 2016 vs 2022
8:04 Spaceport Norway
12:44 Who is going to Spaceport Norway?
14:30 Bringing in non-space corporations
16:10 What makes a good space conference?
21:55 The Norwegian space ecosystem
25:40 The Norwegian national space strategy
30:22 Norway's potential in the space sector
36:46 Ole's future projects
39:25 Sci-fi
Friday Sep 30, 2022
Friday Sep 30, 2022
In this episode we talk about predicting extreme weather, timely (if not planned!) given hurricane Ian -- by the way, we hope you are all safe & sound!Dan Harkins, the COO of Tropical Weather Analytics will tell us about extreme weather and how their proposed satellite constellation may help us predict it.
TWA Website: https://weathersats.com/
Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven: https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI. Stay tuned for the English translation, which should come out soon.
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:30 Elevator pitch
3:22 NASA's weather prediction tech
4:09 Prediction timeframe and accuracy
8:17 The Polar Vortex
9:03 Why has nobody done this before?
11:24 What Tropical Weather Analytics provides
15:03 Measuring wind
17:13 The ESA Arctic Weather Satellite and other sources of data
19:32 Reluctance to use this data
23:55 Key customer segments and go to market strategy
28:14 Aviation
30:53 Satellites
32:28 Timeline, fundraising and vision
35:27 Microwave sounders
38:23 Climate Change analysis
39:30 Origin story
40:50 What else to do in the space sector
43:11 Sci-FiNB: Dan briefly mentions Spaced Ventures at some point. For full disclosure, Raphael is a member of Spaced's investment advisory committee. As a reminder, the podcast is purely for journalistic purposes and nothing constitutes investment advice or solicitation.
Friday Sep 23, 2022
Friday Sep 23, 2022
My guest this week is Austin Link, a co-founder of Starfish Space. Starfish develops a space tug that can be used for satellite life extension and space debris removal. Austin and his co-founder Trevor both came out of Blue Origin and are now well on their way at Starfish, which raised a seed round last year. Please enjoy listening to their story.
https://www.starfishspace.com/
Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven: https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI. Stay tuned for the English translation, which should come out soon.
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:16 Elevator pitch & origin story
6:06 Blue Origin
14:14 The satellite life extension market
19:42 Debris removal
24:00 Going to market
27:10 Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking (RPOD)
33:43 Starfish Space timeline
36:59 Working with Governments
38:46 Starfish Space is hiring
39:04 What else to do in the space sector
41:50 Sci-Fi
Friday Sep 16, 2022
Friday Sep 16, 2022
This episode is with a guest who I wanted to have on for a while. Avi Loeb is a Professor of Science at Harvard and was the chair of its astronomy department from 2011 to 2020. He has written 8 books, including the best-seller “Extraterrestrial”, and hundreds of research papers. Among many other things, he is well-known for his views on the Oumuamua interstellar object, and he now heads the Galileo project, which is looking for further such objects. One of his upcoming projects is an expedition to try to retrieve fragments of another interstellar object from the ocean floor. If all this wasn’t interesting enough, we also talk about academia, the way science is pursued, and how we can ensure our kids maintain scientific curiosity. Enjoy!
Avi's book "Extraterrestrial":
https://www.amazon.com/Extraterrestrial-First-Intelligent-Beyond-Earth/dp/0358278147
Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Do you want to specifically learn about investing in Space? Join the pre-release of Raphael's new live-taught course on Maven: https://maven.com/space-business-institute/investing-course
Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI. Stay tuned for the English translation, which should come out soon.
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:14 Avi's farm background and the "Indistinguishable grains of sand"
4:27 What makes humanity unique?
8:49 How academics can suppress innovation
12:01 Fixing the academic "system"
20:07 The Fermi Paradox
25:34 Cosmic archaeology
35:32 Is Earth worth visiting?
39:50 The Galileo Project
40:52 UAPs
44:29 Current status of observation tech
49:13 Planned expedition to the Ocean floor
53:40 Projects that we should be engaging in
57:42 James Webb Space Telescope
01:00:36 Keeping your childlike curiosity
Friday Sep 09, 2022
Friday Sep 09, 2022
This week we talk about military space. The military has been part of space exploration since the beginning, and it continues to be very important, including as a major customer of, and even occasional investor in, commercial space companies. So it makes sense that we spend some time talking about military space in this podcast. I suspect there will be several episodes on this topic, but my first guest, in this episode, is Professor Bleddyn Bowen from the University of Leicester. He has literally written the book on military space, aptly called “War in Space” and will soon publish another one. We talk about his books, the recent establishment of the U.S. Space Force, how one should think about space as a military domain, about relevant space capabilities, and a few other things. Enjoy!
Prof. Bleddyn Bowen's books:
https://www.amazon.com/Bleddyn-E-Bowen/e/B09X5QSTNW/
Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Raphael is designing a new, live-taught course. Join the mailing list to get updates and early access: https://jfx8zhjodpz.typeform.com/to/t0VSuhVD
Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI. Stay tuned for the English translation, which should come out soon.
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
3:15 The space domain as a military domain
8:00 Which problem(s) could the Space Force solve?
12:08 Bleddyn's books
13:03 Why Space warfare?
14:52 Analogies to space a military domain
19:30 Key capabilities
24:12 Space defense companies
28:11 Potential vulnerable capabilities
38:24 Circling back to Bleddyn's books
44:19 Sci Fi
Thursday Sep 01, 2022
Thursday Sep 01, 2022
My guest this week is the CEO and founder of Phantom Space, Jim Cantrell. Having started at JPL, Jim is also a decades-long veteran of commercial space. He has been involved in around a dozen space startups, including SpaceX in its early days. There are probably few people who have been around the commercial space sector as much as he has, so we do not only talk about Phantom but about the space economy in general. Enjoy!
https://www.phantomspace.com/
Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Raphael is designing a new, live-taught course. Join the mailing list to get updates and early access: https://jfx8zhjodpz.typeform.com/to/t0VSuhVD
Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI. Stay tuned for the English translation, which should come out soon.
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:20 Jim's background
6:30 The last 20 years in space vs. Jim's expectations
9:20 SpaceX
14:14 A couple of key lessons from SpaceX
21:23 Phantom Space business model
24:15 Phantom Space and partner startups
26:55 Taking the "friction" out of space business
32:47 Standardization in space
35:32 How Russia is affecting the Space Economy
39:57 Vision for Phantom Space
40:40 Key lessons from Jim's experience with startups
45:18 Core DNA of Phantom Space
47:15 Phantom Space's vehicles
50:23 Phantom Space in 10 years
50:56 Rapid fire questions on the space economy
55:33 The space sector in 20 years
01:01:42 Fun questions
Friday Aug 26, 2022
Friday Aug 26, 2022
My guest this week is the President of Portugal Space, the Portuguese Space Agency, Ricardo Conde. Portugal Space was only recently formed, in 2019. Ricardo and I talk about that experience of founding a new national space agency and dive into some of their marquis projects, including in the remote sensing value chain and the Santa Maria Spaceport in the Azores Islands. We also talk about the space economy in general and how a country like Portugal can add specific value. A quick heads up: this episode was live recorded in Ricardo’s offices and there is some background noise from the AC, but it gets better over time. Enjoy!
Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Raphael is designing a new, live-taught course. Join the mailing list to get updates and early access: https://jfx8zhjodpz.typeform.com/to/t0VSuhVD
Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
3:51 The origins of Portugal Space
17:29 Global navigation data friction and space debris
31:44 Portugal Space timeline
37:52 Open sourcing capability for space startups and space education
48:33 Building an ecosystem of space companies in Portugal
52:54 Space law and regulations in Portugal
57:45 International space companies
59:37 The potential successful outcome
01:02:25 PT Space is hiring!
01:05:00 Closing message
Thursday Aug 11, 2022
Thursday Aug 11, 2022
My guest this week is Bessie Schwarz from Cloud to Street, a company that uses satellite imagery, and other data, to come up with better flood models for customers like governments and insurance companies. Hence, it is an example of the use of space technology for something useful right here on Earth, which is one of our favorite topics!
Opportunities to learn more about space & the space economy:
Check out the edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy
Raphael is designing a new, live-taught course. Join the mailing list to get updates and early access: https://jfx8zhjodpz.typeform.com/to/t0VSuhVD
Raphael's introductory book on the space economy recently came out in its Portuguese translation: https://www.amazon.com/Para-Cima-Economia-Espacial-Portuguese-ebook/dp/B09X5WV3WC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ROKTHNSCZCRI
The Space Business Podcast is sponsored by NanoAvionics.
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spacebusinesspodcast
Follow the podcast on Twitter https://www.twitter.com/podcast_space
Timestamps
0:00 Intro
2:28 Elevator pitch
5:18 Origin story
8:07 The product
16:40 Clients
21:31 Value-add
28:24 The flood model
30:25 Using space data for Earth
38:22 Market size
41:17 Vision
44:02 Core competencies
48:10 Funding the business
50:35 Closing questions incl. sci-fi & cli-fi