SSPI

Hosted by Space & Satellite Professionals International

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Episodes

100

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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About the show

This is the official podcast of the Space & Satellite Professionals International. On this channel, we release podcasts in two series: Making Leaders and Better Satellite World. Find out more about SSPI at www.sspi.org

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60 recent

June 11, 202633 min

Are We There Yet? - Episode 3: Dialing 911 in Space

What happens when astronauts, spacecraft, or future lunar settlers need help and there's no communications network to call on? In Episode 3 of Are We There Yet?, Tamara Bond-Williams speaks with Toni Spatola, Chief Commercial Officer of Filtronic, about the communications and navigation infrastructure that may enable safe operations beyond Earth orbit. Using the Artemis II communications blackout as a starting point, the conversation explores how governments and industry are building the communications, positioning, and navigation systems that future lunar missions may depend upon. If communications infrastructure is a prerequisite for safe operations, it may also become one of the foundational investments and service sectors of the emerging Space Safety Economy. Sponsored by the American Space Exploration Children's Trust Fund.

June 8, 20261 hr 18 min

Safety, Capital, and What Happens After Artemis?

Artemis has returned human spaceflight to the Moon. Attention is now turning to what follows — how activity between Earth and the Moon develops, where opportunity begins to take shape, and how safety and operational readiness influence participation. This rebroadcast of the May edition of the New York Space Business Roundtable, brings together perspectives from industry, finance, and policy to examine what is forming now, what signals matter to investors and operators, and how organizations are positioning themselves in response. This session explores: Where early opportunity is taking shape What signals matter to investors and operators How safety and reliability influence decision-making How organizations are positioning themselves for what comes next Featured speakers include: Shatel Bhakta, ESDMD SAO Lunar Architecture Team Lead, NASA Stephen Eisele, CEO, Lonestar Data Holdings Jessica Gregory, VP, Civil Space Programs, Voyager Technologies Zack Hester, Head of U.S. Office, Novaspace Paolo Pino, Co-Founder & CTO, Volta Space Technologies

June 1, 202629 min

Movers…In Our Orbit: Bob Patterson, Before Live Was Normal

Before livestreaming became ordinary, satellite communications transformed how humanity experienced the world. In this episode of Movers…In Our Orbit, SSPI Executive Director Tamara Bond-Williams speaks with Robert M. Patterson, founder of The SPACECONNECTION, about the rise of satellite television and the communications revolution that made live global broadcasting possible. Inspired by the Apollo 11 broadcast, Patterson went on to help pioneer satellite sports distribution, HDTV broadcasting, digital transmission techniques, and transportable uplink systems that reshaped television infrastructure worldwide. The conversation also explores what today's NewSpace generation can learn from earlier cycles of communications innovation, industry transformation, and technology hype.

May 7, 202629 min

BlackSky: How Is BlackSky Turning Space Data Into Real-Time Decisions?

How is satellite data evolving from passive observation into real-time decision-making? In this episode, BlackSky: How Is BlackSky Turning Space Data Into Real-Time Decisions?, we welcome new SSPI member BlackSky and explore how speed is redefining the value of space-based intelligence. Joined by Katelyn Fobes, the conversation unpacks how BlackSky combines high-frequency satellite imagery with AI-driven analytics to detect anomalies and deliver actionable insights within hours, and sometimes minutes, of collection. From tracking aircraft and maritime activity to supporting disaster response, the focus is on operational relevance… not just data. We also explore how commercial space is reshaping government missions, the role of human-in-the-loop decision-making, and why workforce, mentorship, and community are central to how BlackSky is showing up as a new SSPI member.

April 30, 202627 min

Space & Satellite Futures: Why I Serve, Episode 1: with Daniel Gizinski

Who are the leaders helping guide the future of the space and satellite industry, and why do they choose to serve? In this episode of the SSPI podcast, Why I Serve, we meet Daniel Gizinski of Comtech and a member of the SSPI Board of Directors. Daniel shares his journey from engineering to executive leadership and reflects on how companies like Comtech contribute to connectivity, resilience, and the broader space ecosystem. In this conversation: how he entered the satellite and space industry where Comtech plays a role today what excites him about the future what challenges the industry needs to address and why he chose to serve on the SSPI Board This episode is part of SSPI's Space and Satellite Futures track, focused on leadership and the next generation of the industry. If you are interested in satellite communications, the space economy, industry leadership, and the future of global connectivity, this conversation offers a clear and grounded perspective.

April 27, 202640 min

Are We There Yet? - Episode 1: Does the Space Safety Economy Exist Yet?

Does a true Space Safety Economy already exist, or is it still emerging? In Episode 1 of Are We There Yet?, Tamara Bond-Williams interviews Rob Scheige of WTW about space insurance, satellite insurance, orbital debris, space risk management, satellite servicing, and the economics of safer operations in orbit. They discuss why hardware failure remains a larger insurance concern than collision risk, how insurers think about catastrophic orbital events, and what market signals would show that a scalable Space Safety Economy has arrived. A timely conversation for leaders across the space economy, satellite industry, NewSpace, and space sustainability. Sponsored by the American Space Exploration Children's Trust Fund.

April 16, 202646 min

Space & Satellite Futures: Could An Antenna Change the World? The Cohort Asks Ryan Stevenson.

Ryan Stevenson is the Chief Scientist and a founding member of Kymeta, where he led one of the most consequential breakthroughs in satellite antenna technology: the world's first simultaneous connection to both Ku and Ka frequency bands in a single, compact metamaterial surface. It is the kind of achievement that looks inevitable in hindsight and was anything but in practice. In this episode of Orbited, the 2025 20 Under 35 cohort asks Ryan how he knew when to ship, what assumption he had to stop accepting before the solution became visible, and where metamaterial antennas are headed as spectrum congestion becomes an industry-wide problem. He also makes the case for why orbital debris cleanup may be the most important technology to watch, and shares what he'd tell high schoolers about entering a space industry in the middle of a massive disruption cycle.

April 9, 202641 min

Space and Satellite Futures: Randy Segal Is at the Table When Space Law Gets Written. Now the Cohort Gets a Seat

Space law pioneer Randy Segal, 2026 Space and Satellite Hall of Fame inductee and partner and space practice co-leader at Hogan Lovells, joins the 2025 20 Under 35 cohort for a wide-ranging conversation about what it takes to build legal and regulatory frameworks for an industry that moves faster than the law. From commercial space stations to sovereign government deals to mega-constellation licensing, Randy has navigated it all, and in this episode, she brings 33 years of hard-won perspective directly to the next generation. Topics include: how to think about contracts when no one knows what the regulations will be, what sovereigns and startups misunderstand about each other, why Elon Musk's Martian Constitution clause is less crazy than it sounds, what the current FCC environment means for operators and investors, how to protect IP in space, and what it takes to build a career in a field that only makes sense in hindsight. Orbited is an SSPI series pairing the 2025 20 Under 35 cohort with inductees into the Hall of Fame Class of 2026.

April 3, 202652 min

Space & Satellite Futures: Candace Johnson, HoF '26, and the 2025 20 Under 35 Cohort Have More in Common Than You'd Think

In this episode, Candace Johnson, co-founder of SES, pioneer of direct-to-home broadcasting, and partner at Seraphim Space, is Orbited as she fields questions from SSPI's 2025 20 Under 35 cohort. One of the most consequential figures in commercial space history, Johnson launched her career at 30 with a letter from the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and a conviction that private satellite communications would reshape Europe. Decades later, she helped build the ecosystem that made global connectivity possible and is now raising alarms about the industry she helped create. In this conversation, the 2025 cohort presses Johnson on what it took to break the financial and cultural assumptions holding back commercial satellite operators, how she identified market demand before the language existed to describe it, and what she sees when she looks at the constellation economy today. Her answers are pointed: spectrum is being wasted, emerging space-faring nations are being locked out, and the industry that prided itself on opening access may be quietly closing it again. Orbited is an SSPI series pairing the 2025 20 Under 35 cohort with inductees into the Hall of Fame Class of 2026.

March 27, 202640 min

Space and Satellite Futures: The Chief Saboteur Just Got Orbited

Orbited brings together the 2025 20 Under 35 cohort and the Space & Satellite Hall of Fame Class of 2026, where one industry legend takes the center and the next generation rotates through with questions designed to draw insight from experience. The clock is running. The buzzer is real. And every participant gets their moment in the orbit. In this debut session, Steve Hart, whose work over four decades helped shape military satellite security, IP-based commercial networking, and the ground network algorithms behind high-capacity satellite systems, faces off with a cohort that arrives with serious questions. They want to know about sunk costs and when to let go of good work. They ask about cybersecurity threats then and now, about navigating defense acquisition culture, about how you build a company that stays innovative when the billionaires move in. And they close with something bigger: whether multilateralism in space can survive a world that keeps pulling toward sovereignty and silos. Hart doesn't hedge. He talks about his time as what he calls "Chief Saboteur" and what it takes to break things on purpose when stagnation sets in. These conversations are part of SSPI's Space and Satellite Futures mission, cultivating and recognizing the talent that keeps our industry moving forward.