Today, Pathfinder unveils an industry exclusive. An influential trio – Major General (Ret.) Kim Crider, Eddie Papczun, and Mike Dickey – veterans of A&D, have come together to launch Elara Nova, a consulting firm meticulously crafted to cater to the ever-expanding space industry. With illustrious careers under their belts, these three have held distinguished positions in the Air Force and Space Force (Kim was the Chief Technology Innovation Officer and Mike was Chief Architect) and later ventured into space and defense consulting.

Recognizing a critical void in the market not being met by major consulting organizations, Crider, Papczun, and Dickey have forged a comprehensive and cohesive consulting powerhouse. Their vision: bolster the space industry, fortify national security, and aid companies in cultivating international alliances.

Kim and Eddie join us to discuss:

• The origins of Elara Nova
• Why a space-focused consultancy?
• Range of services and target clients
• Importance of data for a company’s space strategy
• Navigating private vs government funding
• “A pacing threat in China”
• And much more…

And much more…

Our episode is brought to you by SpiderOak, a US-based software company that builds space cybersecurity products and solutions for civilian, military, and commercial space operations. Learn more at https://spideroak.com/ 

• Chapters •

00:00 Introduction and SpiderOak Ad

01:32 Introducing Kim & Eddie

01:50 The start of a new business venture

05:32 Origins of Elara Nova

06:20 The Avengers of the Space Industry

11:19 Why Elara Nova and why now?

22:42 Kim's background as Chief Technology Innovation Officer of the USSF

27:02 How important is data to a company's space strategy?

35:20 SpiderOak Ad Break

36:08 Focusing on government vs commercial customers

40:10 How should startups navigate funding and government capital?

45:10 DoD vs NASA space budget

48:50 US lead vs China

53:54 NASA prediction

54:55 Elon prediction

55:57 The first to the Moon

59:10 How to get in touch with Elara Nova

• Show notes •

Elara Nova — https://elaranova.com/

Kim's Email: kim@elaranova.com

Eddie's Email: eddie@elaranova.com

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) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)