EP 126 — Catalyx Space's Rifath Shaarook On Why Compliance And Picking The Right Licenses Are The Hardest Part Of Space And Defense

Rifath Shaarook, Co-Founder and CEO of Catalyx Space, says building a satellite is easier than the compliance around it. The hardest part is figuring out which license applies, ITU or FAA, and which military, NASA, or ESA standards to maintain. Get it wrong, and technical talent won't save the team.

He also walks Steve through Catalyx's foldable heat shield. It uses cable tension to deploy wider in space, so it faces 900 to 1,000 degrees instead of 2,500 or more and can use much lighter material.

Topics discussed:

- Navigating ITU frequency coordination and FAA licensing

- Tracking military, NASA, and ESA standards

- Understanding qualification and testing requirements before building hardware

- Engaging defense stakeholders from the first design validation

- Using cable tension and tensegrity to deploy reentry heat shields

- Designing reentry vehicles for a 1:1 payload-to-mass ratio

- Lowering return costs toward $5,000 per kilogram

- Removing the founder bottleneck to scale business development

Listen to more episodes:

Apple

Spotify

YouTube

Website