Space Business Podcast

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.

Episodes

June 17, 2025 48 mins

Is the space sector actually financed in the right way? That’s probably the main question I’m discussing with my guest Justin Stevens, founder and CEO of the investment firm Overlap Holdings. He spent 18 years at Apollo Global Management, a very prominent private equity firm. So he’s a Wall Street guy like me and, I think, qualified to voice an opinion on this questions which we may not ask enough. Enjoy!

 

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00:00 -...

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My guest this week is Pierre Lionnet, Director of Research at Eurospace, who has followed the global space sector for over 30 years. We discuss a range of topics including e.g. SpaceX, the launch sector in general, and national space policies. Pierre is one of my favorite people to follow on space as he usually provides very frank and thought out opinions. I think this comes through in this episode - enjoy!

 

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My guest this week is Sebastian Klaus, Co-Founder & CEO of Atmos Space Cargo, who discusses his company’s mission to unlock downmass logistics with an innovative and reusable space capsule, paving the way for in-space manufacturing, defense applications, and other applications.

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

00:59 - Elevator Pitch

02:07 - Importance of Returning Cargo from Space

04:24 - Challenges and Technologies in Spa...

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My guest this week is Glen Martin, Co-Founder & CEO of Extraterrestrial Mining Company (XMC), discusses his company’s bold mission to mine Helium-3 on the Moon and its potential to revolutionize energy and tech on Earth.

 

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction 

01:36 - Elevator Pitch

03:42 - Understanding Helium-3 and Its Applications

11:59 - Tech Aspects of Lunar Mining

20:39 - Future Prospects and Initial Missions

23:31 - Ene...

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This episode kicks off a new series on in-space R&D and manufacturing, exploring its potential (e.g. for sectors like pharma and semiconductors), its current status, and its challenges, among other topics.

At the end of this episode, Raphael highlights the recent launch of the Orbital Edge accelerator to support startups in this emerging sector.

 

Orbital Edge Accelerator: https://orbitaledge.techconnect.org/

 

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My guest this week is Adel Haddoud, Founder & CEO of Infinite Orbits, a French in-orbit servicing company. We discuss their technology, business model, and vision, as well as the broader market for satellite servicing and space sustainability. Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:04 - Elevator Pitch 

03:30 - Origin Story

04:51 - Technological Innovations

07:35 - Core of the Company

09:15 - Computing Hardware in Space

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Asteroid mining is making a comeback. It may sound futuristic, but some startups are betting on a viable and economic path to making it a reality and investors are taking notice. One of those companies is Karman+, and this week, I’m joined by its Co-Founder, Daynan Crull. Enjoy!

 

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:13 - Elevator Pitch

04:18 - Vision and Challenges of Asteroid Mining

06:07 - Recruitment and Team Building

0...

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Space to Grow is a new book on the space economy. Its authors, Matt Weinzierl, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Brendan Rosseau, also formerly of Harvard and now in strategy at Blue Origin, are my guests this week. Enjoy!

 

Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier (Harvard Business Publishing, 2025)

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Grow-Unlocking-Economic-Frontier/dp/1647827167#:~:text=Book%20overview&text=An...

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My guest this week is Stan Maximin, Founder & Executive Chairman of Latitude, a French micro-launch company. We discuss Latitude's rocket, target customers, and vision, as well as the wider launch market in Europe and globally. Enjoy!

 

🕰️ Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:28 - Elevator Pitch

02:57 - Starting a Launch Company

11:20 - The Product

16:44 - Competitive Edge

25:30 - Design Decisions & Market Strategy

35:09 - Current...

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Ariel Ekblaw is an MIT aero-astro engineer who founded the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, and developed a new technique to build large-scale space structures. She now runs the Aurelia Institute, a non-for-profit dedicated to building humanity’s future in space and the Aurelia Foundry, a space-focused VC fund. We talk about all of these things in this episode. Enjoy!

 

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:47 - Ariel...

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Space Piracy is a new book about the prospect of organized crime in the space sector, anything ranging from hacking for ransom payments all the way to, some time in the future, actual piracy. The book’s co-authors, Marc Feldman and Hugh Taylor are my guests Enjoy!

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 Introduction 01:28 Meet the Authors: Mark Feldman and Hugh Taylor 04:10 The Genesis of the Book 05:55 Speculative Non-Fiction: Predicting Space ...

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This is my preview of what the coming year 2025 may hold for the Space sector - including in launch, satcom, earth observation, lunar exploration, in-space manufacturing, science, government, finance, events, etc.

For the second half of the episode, fellow space investors Alexandra Vidyuk and Faraz Khan join me to provide their perspectives, in a roundtable format.

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:11 - 2025 Space Preview: F...

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Astroscale is a prominent space company from Japan, focused on a variety of on-orbit services incl. active space debris removal. My guest is their Group Chief Operating Officer, Chris Blackerby.

 

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Introduction

01:41 - Elevator Pitch

03:22 - On-Orbit Servicing Categories

06:53 - Core Competency of Astroscale: RPOD

09:00 - Tech Stack of current Mission

12:41 - Automated Space Operations and Safety

17:53 - Spa...

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My guest this week: Mike Grace, Founder and CEO of Longshot Space. Longshot is developing a kinetic launch system, using a multi-injection gas-powered cannon to send payloads to orbit at significantly reduced costs. Mike explains the engineering behind the technology, its economic advantages, and the challenges of creating a system capable of high-velocity launches. 

🕰️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Countdown & podcast intro

02:04 - El...

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My guest this week, Karthik Gollapudi, led the software team for SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. In this role, he realized the importance of monitoring complex hardware systems in order to detect faults or ideally prevent them before they even happen. That led him to become co-founder and CEO of Sift, a venture-funded startup dedicated to monitoring and analyzing hardware telemetry, and Sift is the topic of this week’s podcast. Enjoy!

Fol...

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Integrate is a venture-backed startup from Seattle who are building a platform to facilitate teams collaborating on developing complex hardware, such as space hardware. Integrate’s co-founder & CEO John Conafay is here to talk about how this was done before Integrate, how Integrate aims to improve it, and many other things about the business. Enjoy!

Follow us:

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

LinkedIn - https://w...

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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 spacepo...

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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 shoul...

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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/raphaelroett...

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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!

Follow us:

Twitter - https://www.twitte...

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