Buddy up (1/4/23)

Good morning. Who was at the Cape to watch their hardware launch on yesterday's Transporter mission? How were the vibes? Reply and let us know.

In today's newsletter:🎙️ Pathfinder #0029🛰️ Starlab + Airbus💸 The term sheet

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Pathfinder #0029, with Tess Hatch and Rachael Zisk

We’re doing things a little differently this week. Ryan’s taking a step back from his podcast-hosting duties so you can get to know another member of the Payload media machine.

Actually, we’re doing things very differently. Today’s episode isn’t a Payload-on-Payload interview. Instead, we brought in a guest host.  

The interviewer: Tess Hatch is a former aerospace engineer and current partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, where she invests in all things deep tech with a particular focus on the space industry. She’s backed industry-leading space companies like Spire Global ($SPIR) and Rocket Lab ($RKLB). Today, Tess is coming for Ryan’s job at the helm of Pathfinder.

The interviewee: Payload’s own Rachael Zisk. Rachael joined the Payload team in the early days of the daily newsletter and has been working to shape our coverage of the space industry ever since. She’s also the author of Parallax, Payload’s weekly newsletter covering space science.

A sneak peek…

This week’s episode runs the gamut from the inner workings of Payload to musings on the future of the space industry. Here’s some of what you can expect from today’s episode:

• Rachael’s roots in storytelling 

• The duck boat photographer to science writer pipeline

• Joining Payload as employee #4

• The highs and lows of the daily newsletter biz

• Two key ways to determine the success of a Payload story

• The orbital debris dilemma…and is it an existential problem in space?

• Predictions and hot takes for the coming year of spaceflight

…plus who Rachael would bring to space, the rocket she would take, and what her next Payload deep dive might cover.

Where to listen 

🔊 Apple📺 YouTube 🎧 Spotify

Voyager Signs Airbus on to Starlab Team

Voyager Space announced today that it has signed on Airbus as a partner for Starlab, a free-flying LEO outpost planned to be launched in 2028. Airbus Defense and Space will provide design support and technical expertise for the space station. 

• Voyager-owned Nanoracks is already iterating on orbit toward the eventual free-flying station. 

• Lockheed Martin ($LMT) is working with Voyager to design and deploy Starlab.

Starlab at a glance: The station is designed to provide 100% of the ISS’s payload capacity, and will be able to support “hundreds” of experiments each year. The continuously crewed station will serve as a science park, commercial hub, and (potentially) a space hotel. 

The international angle: This partnership will help “expand Starlab's ecosystem to serve [ESA] and its member state space agencies to continue their microgravity research in LEO," Voyager Chairman/CEO Dylan Taylor noted in a statement. 

Jean-Marc Nasr, EVP of space systems at Airbus Defense and Space, added that the pairing “is an important step in making Starlab a reality, providing a foundation for long-lasting European and American leadership in space.”

Send this to someone who wants to go to Starlab:

In Other News

• Transporter-6, the first launch of 2023, deployed all of its customer payloads. Read our roundup online of most of those payloads, ranging from space tugs to weather satellites.

• John Deere is on the hunt for a satellite partner.

• Iridium has reportedly entered into a service provider agreement for direct-to-cell connectivity.

• Walt Cunningham, a former NASA astronaut and Apollo 7 crew member, has died at age 90.

• Ohio punches way above its weight in producing astronauts for the US space program.

The View from Space