EP 13 — Voyager Space's Matthew Kuta on Entrepreneurial Challenges and the Future of Aerospace
On this week's episode of the DIB Innovators podcast, David speaks with Matthew Kuta, President and Co-Founder of Voyager Space, who shares insights on his transition from the Air Force to founding a space exploration company.
Matthew discusses the challenges of starting Voyager Space with limited resources and offers valuable advice to aspiring entrepreneurs in the aerospace sector. He also dives into the unique mission of Voyager Space as the prime company tasked with creating the replacement for the International Space Station. Matthew reflects on the future of space exploration and usage, including implications for national security and defense.
Topics discussed:
- Matthew’s transition from Air Force to Voyager Space leadership, including challenges and achievements.
- Challenges faced in starting Voyager Space and raising capital for the venture.
- Voyager Space’s involvement in Starlab, the replacement for the International Space Station, and its innovative technology.
- The importance of strategic partnerships such as those of Voyager Space’s with Airbus and Mitsubishi for the development of Starlab.
- The importance of understanding the end goal of a company or project before starting and capitalizing it.
- Mitigating risks in the space sector, including cyber threats and space debris management.
Guest Quotes:
“It was more like, I want to always do things that are very difficult, and when it ceases to be difficult, then that's when I find that it's time for me to do something different. And this seemed kind of like one of the more difficult paths. Paths to go down.”
“The technologies will ebb and flow, but the space as a sector specifically is not going to go away anytime soon. So whether it's the defense side, which is clearly applicable, even the commercial side, you know, it's applicable.”
“I think if you go three or four levels deep in either supply chain or the data chain, space quite frequently somewhere plays in a B2B relationship, deeper in the innards of whatever the customer is seeing.”
“For example, let's say there's some sort of conflict, and an adversary elects to compromise or neutralize the GPS constellation. Let's say they have that capability. What does that do to global commerce if every single commercial airline cannot take off because they can't align their GPS to the tarmac?”
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