Space Business Podcast

My guest this week is the founder & CEO of another prominent new space company – Payam Banazadeh from Capella Space. Capella is a remote sensing company that is using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology. Don’t worry – we will explain what SAR is during the episode. The important summary: it allows you to see at night and through cloud cover. You can imagine that has interesting and important use cases. Payam will take us through those and many other things about Capella. Enjoy! Capella's job board: https://www.capellaspace.com/about-us/careers/ Opportunities to learn more about space business: Check out the new 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 2:50 Elevator pitch 4:07 Origin story 8:00 MH370 10:05 Geographic coverage 14:58 General use cases 19:10 Pricing 21:11 Government use cases 25:02 Commercial use cases 29:40 Cool things Capella detected 32:05 Hostile behavior 35:44 Satellite manufacturing & design 39:22 Sales process 46:27 Consolidation 48:52 Vision 50:49 Financing 55:27 Wrap-up: hiring, other things to do in the space sector, sci-fi

It’s another fun episode this week as I sit down with Alex Fielding, co-founder and CEO of Privateer. You may have heard about Privateer when it first emerged last year, with few details about it, but intriguingly having Apple co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak as its President and co-founder. Earlier this year, Privateer came further out of stealth and we learned that, among other things, they are doing space situational awareness … and got a sponsorship from Swiss watchmaker Omega! But there is so much more to the story. Listen to the episode to find out. Full disclosure: my venture fund E2MC is an investor in Privateer. Opportunities to learn more about space business: Check out the new 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 2:32 Elevator Pitch 4:22 Alex's career path 9:35 A comparison between space and oceans 10:56 The domain awareness aspect and insurance in LEO 15:44 The tragedy of the commons in space 19:11 Space debris and mapping problems 25:04 Infrastructure vs Applications 29:46 How Privateer looks in practice 34:30 The "rocket science" developer issue 37:14 The initial Privateer apps 40:24 Fun apps 43:41 What is missing? 45:26 Timeframe 46:31 The name "Privateer" 47:49 Being based in Hawaii 53:12 Other interests in space 58:26 Sci-Fi

My guest is Shey Sabripour, the founder and CEO of CesiumAstro, a prominent late stage startup in the satellite communications area. Specifically, they design and build phased array communications systems, actually not only for satellites but also for aerial platforms like drones. You may now wonder what phased array is, but don’t worry, Shey explains it in the episode. In any event, it’s important tech, as also evidenced by the fact that CesiumAstro managed to raise a US$60 million Series B round a couple of months ago. Opportunities to learn more about space business: Check out the new edX/EPFL Space Economy MOOC: https://www.edx.org/course/new-space-economy I am also 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 CesiumAstro job board: https://www.cesiumastro.com/careers Timestamps 0:00 Intro 2:30 Elevator pitch 3:05 Phased array payloads 5:37 LEO constellations 8:46 CesiumAstro's origins 14:16 Becoming a satellite integrator 16:06 Customers 19:23 Supply chain issues and space heritage 23:29 Future products 24:49 In-space communications 29:00 Future of satellite communications 30:54 Medium/long term vision for CesiumAstro 32:27 Funding and hiring 36:30 What else is interesting in space 38:03 Sci-Fi