Systems Engineering for Space, with Steve Massey (Prewitt Ridge)

Picture a world where you can complete your 6-month engineering project in just 6 weeks by removing typical bottlenecks in your workflows. That’s what cofounder and CEO of Prewitt Ridge Steve Massey believes his company can help both government and commercial stakeholders of the space industry achieve.

Enter Prewitt Ridge: Prewitt Ridge is a software company that helps engineers manage engineering requirements in complex projects. The company's software, Verve, captures and manages engineering requirements inside the tools where they originate and across complex datasets.

Said differently…Prewitt Ridge's software helps engineers to be more organized and efficient, which can lead to faster, cheaper and more reliable product development. 

A sneak peek…

Steve held roles at Slingshot Aerospace and SpaceX before teaming up with fellow cofounder and CTO Zeke Brechtel to start Prewitt Ridge. Today, Mo and Steve discuss:

• Prewitt Ridge’s value-add to the space industry
• NASA’s expertise in systems engineering
• The future of automation in aerospace
• Working on Hyperloop technology
• 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

03:03 - What is Prewitt Ridge?

04:46 - Keeping all stakeholders coordinated

06:21 - What inspired you to build the company?

10:51 - Common mistakes for space founders

12:45 - Automatic vs manual systems

15:40 - Is systems engineering just an exercise in paperwork?

19:29 - Quantifying losses from not having proper processes

21:47 - NASA's approach to systems engineering

26:44 - What products are you building today?

28:58 - Epsilon Ad break

29:27 - Current customer traction

31:05 - The ideal commercial customer

33:03 - Team size today

33:27 - Prewitt's competitors

36:14 - What is a digital thread?

37:34 - The Techstars Space Accelerator

40:25 - What is Hyperloop and how did you start working on it? 

45:27 - Where do you see automation spreading in the space industry?

52:13 - Where does the name Prewitt come from?

52:57 - What do you do in your free time?

• Show notes • 

Prewitt Ridge's website — https://www.prewittridge.com/

Prewitt Ridge's socials — https://twitter.com/prewittridge

Steve's socials — https://twitter.com/thesteve

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/)