Space Infrastructure as a Service, with Pierre-Damien Vaujour (Loft Orbital)

Valley of Depth

How do you get Blackrock to lead your $140M funding round? You’ll have to listen to Loft Orbital's CEO and cofounder, Pierre-Damien Vaujour, to find out.

The SF-based company provides a turnkey solution for launching, deploying, and operating small satellites, giving more players access to space. Loft’s business model could be most simplified as a fulfillment model for the space industry. The company buys satellite buses in bulk and integrates customer payloads via their universal hub interface. The company’s proprietary satellite management software simplifies the notoriously complex task of spacecraft operations.

The key value prop? Help customers get to space in months, not years.

Mo and Pierre-Damien have a wide-ranging conversation, including highlights such as:

• Loft’s business model vs. competitors
• Space-as-a-service to space-infrastructure-as-a-service
• Future innovations in the satellite industry
• Toulouse, and why it’s the aerospace capital of Europe

And much more…

This episode is brought to you by Epsilon3, software for complex engineering, testing, and operational procedures. Learn more at https://www.epsilon3.io/

• Chapters •

00:00 - Intro and Epsilon3 Ad

01:38 - How did you get started with Loft Orbital

05:51 - Industry expectations vs reality

08:05 - Technical traction

09:19 - Space-as-a-service vs Space infrastructure-as-a-service

13:23 - Current commercial offerings

15:49 - Managing the complexity of multiple payloads

18:55 - Bulk buying vs vertical integration

21:41 - How do you build partnerships while minimize supply chain risks?

24:38 - Commercial traction

30:18 - Largest opportunity for Loft: Commercial vs Government?

31:30 - Epsilon3 Ad Break

34:45 - Competitive landscape

38:12 - Where is the satellite market heading?

41:41 - Next big innovation in satellite technology?

45:31 - Navigating fundraising and capital needs

52:51 - Toulouse, the aerospace capital of Europe?

55:13 - What company are you most excited about in the space industry?

56:02 - Book/movie recommendation?

• Show notes •

Loft Orbital's website — https://www.loftorbital.com/

Loft Orbital's socials — https://twitter.com/LoftOrbital

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

• About us •

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers.

Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)