Specialist
Director at Sierra Space Corp.
Agenda
- Recent technology developments in the space launch market
- Impact of SpaceX Dragon capsule, Starship and Falcon 9 and ecosystem opportunities for other private companies
- Overview of Nasa’s evaluation for private construction of a new international space station
- Operations and talent retention at key industry players
- Market sizing and timelines for lunar missions, in-space manufacturing, communications and other opportunities in space such as travel and new missions
Questions
1.
What would you highlight as the 2-3 most important developments in the space travel industry recently?
2.
Given your experience with the ISS [International Space Station], what is the opportunity there, the potential mass award for private construction of a new ISS and what timeframe and process do you expect?
3.
Who are the key players competing for the ISS to provide all these capabilities?
4.
You mentioned Redwire and companies such as Voyager and Nanoracks. How do these companies compete with players such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing or even SpaceX? Where is the capital coming from and where do they get the people to work on these projects?
5.
You said you’ve leveraged the ISS in the past for microgravity and other areas of technology development. What are you most excited about? What developments or industries do you think are closest to yielding some key results that go on in space?
6.
How big of a problem is the debris capture element? When does it really become critical? You said we’re just a bad accident away, but could you expand on the magnitude and the size of the issue here?
7.
You mentioned government funding playing less of a role and the private sector becoming bigger and bigger. SpaceX has emerged as the dominant player in several aspects of the industry. How does anyone compete with SpaceX and where do you think SpaceX is strongest and has such a great technology advantage vs the competition?
8.
How much money might it take to compete with SpaceX in some of the areas you mentioned, or in some of these niche markets where SpaceX doesn’t do well? What investments would be required to pursue those opportunities?
9.
Astra Space completed its first orbital commercial launch just this past week for the US Space Force. Is this company now a viable competitor in the launch industry? Why or why not? What’s the significance here?
10.
How do you segment the market for launch and where may the opportunities be? Is it the bigger end or the smaller end? Does it not matter what payload is?
11.
What are your thoughts on the space tourism industry and new opportunities there? Obviously, there have been a lot of high-profile people who have recently gone to space.
12.
How big of a setback do you think this one-year delay at Virgin Galactic was? Is that the right length of time to sort out the issues?
13.
How important is vertical integration vs focus on some specific parts of the value chain?
14.
We talked about talent retention being a real factor. What is it beyond just salary and benefits that people in the industry are seeking when going to work at different companies?
15.
Launch schedules seem busy. Some of them get a lot of media attention. What missions are you focused on in the months ahead business-wise?
