00:00I've been able to spend some time with you in SoCal, right?
00:02Look at the facility, see what you're building.
00:06And you've always been super honest, like space is hard, difficult to get there.
00:11500 million in one go.
00:12Just explain how that gets you to this world where you are like the traffic conductor in low-Earth orbit,
00:20moving different orbital planes for different satellites.
00:24Yeah, well, you know, there's a lot happening in space right now.
00:29And we're here to basically take over where launch leaves off.
00:34So, you know, launch vehicles like, you know, like SpaceX Falcon get you to low-Earth orbit and we take
00:40you everywhere else.
00:40We move you around within orbits and we have vehicles, very high energy vehicles that can take you, you know,
00:47out to very high energy orbits or out to the moon, to Mars and beyond.
00:52The very high energy bit is the bit I find super fascinating.
00:55You were demoing for me the propulsion technology you've worked on.
00:57So, to explain how it works.
00:59But I think also, like, for a lot of the audience, why is it necessary to move whatever the satellite
01:04is from one position in orbit to another?
01:07What would cause that?
01:10So, if you're talking about Helios, our very high energy product, you know, most satellites that want to get to
01:18geosynchronous orbit,
01:19like the very high orbit, 22,000 miles out, typically get dropped off in low-Earth orbit.
01:26And then they end up in a transfer orbit and it can take months to get there.
01:32With Helios, we can get you there in one day.
01:34We just, we have a, you know, it's basically a rocket on a rocket.
01:37It's got a big tank full of propellant and a very high energy pump-fed engine on it.
01:43And it does a couple of burns and gets you to a high energy orbit.
01:48It can also take you, like, way more payload to the moon or, you know, to Mars or to the
01:55outer planets.
01:57Helios, the larger, is meant to be flying, what, in 2027?
02:00You've already had the Miracraft flying three missions.
02:03And that was the first launch in November 2025, almost recently in 2025.
02:07I'm interested in what $500 million buys you, because, as Ed says, space is hard, but it's also expensive.
02:14Yes.
02:14So we've more than doubled the size of the company in the last year, and we're continuing to hire.
02:20We've got a new facility here that we're building out.
02:22We've just got a lot of work in all sectors, you know, commercial, NASA, and government.
02:28So we're addressing all that work, and we're building the highways to the space economy.
02:34You were, of course, integral to the propulsion over at SpaceX.
02:39And we think now of the SpaceX mafia that's about to be created by the end of this month,
02:44and how much money that might infuse new space technologists, new founders.
02:49What does that moment mean to you for SpaceX to go public?
02:53I mean, this is great for building a space economy.
02:58And what I say now often is that I think the true space age is starting now.
03:03I think we're going to start building megastructures in space, which we're seeing with, you know, a million data servers.
03:09We've already talked about using the resources of the moon, which is something I've been talking about since before I
03:14started this company.
03:15This is the things that we're super excited for.
03:19This is the reason I started this company.
03:21This is the reason that employees joined to do really cool things.
03:25We're super excited about this permanent moon base that's been announced by NASA.
03:31This is exactly what we want to do.
03:33You know, Tom, part of visiting with you in SoCal is like there's a ripple effect.
03:38There are companies born out of SpaceX's growth.
03:41There is a network of people that are SpaceX alumni.
03:44When this biggest IPO of all time happens, what do you think the economic effect will be for your industry?
03:50Gigantic.
03:51I think, you know, I grew up in the Star Trek era, the original series, and I felt like some,
03:57you know, by the time I'm this age, we'd be living in a Star Trek world.
04:01And I still think we're going to get there.
04:03And you've got to imagine that in a Star Trek world, the space economy is a big, the biggest part
04:09of the economy.
04:10Right now, the space economy is single digit of the global economy.
04:13And I think we're going to get there where space, by that measure, will grow faster than any other sector.
04:19It's space.
04:20It's also defense tech.
04:22And we think about the billions that the administration wants to put to work in a so-called Golden Dome.
04:27And I'm interested as to how that is going at the moment, how they intercept to work that we understand
04:31you've been doing with Andrill, how that progresses at this moment, Tom.
04:35Yeah, we're here to just provide advanced solutions.
04:38You know, the government needs to move around.
04:41They need to protect their assets.
04:43And we're here to help out however we can.
04:47Tom, do you think we'll be in a place where, like, this year or next, you'll have a demo for
04:52the tech or the work of Andrill?
04:53We're talking about space-based interceptors, technically.
04:56Is that a realistic timeline for the next 12 to 18 months?
04:59I can't talk about the specifics of these programs.
05:05Let me ask you this one final question on the SpaceX IPO.
05:09Yeah.
05:10Reflect on how hard it was those early years for you and now how you got to this point.
05:16I know you're no longer with the company, but it's a part of the story.
05:19Real quick.
05:20Yeah.
05:21You know, we always said we knew it would be hard and it was harder than we thought.
05:26But I'm super proud of what we achieved.
05:28It's, I mean, amazing that this company that I was employee number one at is now a trillion-dollar company.
05:34It's just, you know, amazing.
Comments