TerraWatch Space Podcast

Guerric de Crombrugghe from ScanWorld discusses hyperspectral imagery in agriculture, ScanWorld's focus, institutional missions, potential challenges in Earth observation, and their plans to launch a satellite by 2025.

I want to share this conversation I had with Shimon Elkabetz, one of the co-founders and CEO of Tomorrow.io.In this short episode, Shimon and I chat about why the company was founded, the overall strategy, building a multi-vertical platform, the subject of being labelled as a "space company", the rationale for going to space and more.-----01:10: Intro02:14: Overview of Tomorrow.io09:52: Multi-platform platform vs verticalised product13:20: Being labelled a "space company"15:32: Investing for the future19:20: Why go to space?23:18: We are hiring - https://tomorrow.io/careers24:02: Wrap-up-----  

In this episode, I am speaking with John Springmann, VP of Space at Tomorrow.io. Prior to Tomorrow, John worked at Blacksky and Rocket lab and has extensive experience in building and launching satellites, that is, taking a concept on a slide deck to operations on-orbit.We discuss trends in the space industry, and what's changed from an engineering standpoint, John's experiences at Blacksky building their EO satellites, Rocket Lab building Photon as well as what we are building at Tomorrow.io.-----01:05: John's story04:40: What's changed in space from an engineering standpoint?06:37: Is space really "democratized"? Can space be "outsourced"?11:45: Some surprising trends in the space industry16:55: What's the easiest type of satellite to build and launch20:20: John's experience at Blacksky building EO satellites22:11: Engineering challenges before & during NewSpace era31:29: John's experience at Rocket Lab building Photon37:58: What we are building at Tomorrow.io44:35: Wrap-up-----

Mani Thiru, Aerospace and Satellite Solutions lead for Amazon Web Services in the Asia Pacific region, discusses space activities in the Asia Pacific, AWS's involvement in the space industry, Earth Observation, worries about the space industry, and diversity in the space industry. They explore advancements in countries like Thailand, Singapore, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as AWS's support for Blue Origin and Project Cooper, and the importance of diversity in shaping the future of space exploration.

I was absolutely privileged to have former NASA Astronaut and ex-NOAA Administrator, Kathy Sullivan on my podcast. Kathy can be called a geologist, an oceanographer, a scientist, an astronaut and an explorer. From being the first American woman to walk in space during her Shuttle missions to becoming the first woman to dive to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the world's deepest point, Kathy has had an incredible career. She was also the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and the Administrator of NOAA from 2014 to 2017. These days, among doing a number of other important things, Kathy hosts a podcast called Kathy Sullivan Explores, which I really recommend. In this episode, we talk about her astronaut journey, her experience diving to the world's deepest point, weather, the importance of providing intelligence over data and what action we can take with respect to climate change. I don't think a 40-minute episode is enough to get all her thoughts and advice, but I tried to cover different subjects. I hope you get inspired listening to Kathy as much as I did. ----- 01:54: Kathy's intro 03:41: Kathy's astronaut experience 09:20: The overview effect 15:45: Kathy's experience diving to the world's deepest point 20:30: The interconnectedness of the world 25:50 Kathy's journey at NOAA 28:02: Is weather a solved problem? 32:57: Providing "intelligence" over "data" 35:09: The importance of space for climate 36:37: What action can we take? 38:15: What's keeping Kathy busy these days 41:08: 1-line message for everyone -----

Kevin Weil, President of Product and Business at Planet, discusses his journey from big tech to space tech. Topics include Earth observation, simplifying data access, verticalization, and the future of the industry. He shares his vision for Planet and highlights the importance of addressing climate change through space technology.

Daniel Seidel, Co-founder of LiveEO, discusses their journey in Earth observation, go-to-market strategy, scalability solutions, investing experiences. They emphasize the importance of scalable EO solutions, data availability, and access in space industry. They explore potential investments in space tech with $100m and outline LiveEO's roadmap in Earth observation analytics for enterprises.

Sinéad O'Sullivan, space economist with a background at NASA, discusses the exciting aspects and challenges of the business of space. They explore strategy applied to the space industry, boring problems in space, building space companies in the public market, and the intersection of space and climate. Sinéad shares their concerns about the space industry and emphasizes the importance of interplanetary economics.

In this episode, I am speaking with Rei Goffer, the Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Tomorrow.io. We discuss Rei's journey, how weather forecasting works and the role of satellites in it, Tomorrow's products, why they decided to launch satellites being a software company and more.-----01:36: Rei's journey03:59: An overview of Tomorrow.io05:38: How weather forecasting works10:13: Who are the customers of Tomorrow.io?11:47: What sets Tomorrow.io apart from other weather companies18:01: Why launch satellites in the first place?25:51: Some details on the satellite constellation28:19: The reaction from the space industry and the US Government32:55: Competition within the space industry?35:50: Tomorrow's plans for the future-----

Temidayo Oniosun, Managing Director of Space in Africa, discusses the African space ecosystem, launch capabilities, earth observation and the importance of space for Africa. Investment opportunities and misconceptions are also addressed.