Speakers from Virgin Orbit, Firefly STS, Astra, Relativity Space, and Spaceflight showcased their biggest milestones and goals at SATELLITE 2022’s “Smallsat Launch Services” session.
Jim Simpson of Virgin Orbit highlighted an upcoming U.K. launch for the Queen’s Jubilee. Martin Attiq of Astra said: “It doesn’t matter what any of us think… it matters what customers want. They want an affordable, frequent, reliable launch system. Our goal is to launch every day. We’re still quite a bit away from launching every day, but you can see the progress.” Astra recently delivered its first customer payloads to orbit.
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Josh Brost of Relativity Space highlighted 3D printing as the key to affordability and supply chain simplification: “If customers want something affordable, reliable… we see 3D printing as the technology that makes that possible. It unlocks the ability to do that on the rocket and do that over time.” Jason Mello of Firefly STS said vertical integration has improved operations, enabling engineers and operators side by side.
All speakers agreed finding talent has gotten harder. Brost: “The competition from rocket-specific talent is very strong. We’re hiring software engineers from companies like Google, Apple, people from the automotive industry. You have to get very broad when you ask for talent. Ultimately our company will rise or fall based on the talent we have.” Attiq noted hires from Google and IBM: “Like Josh, we hired great talent from other industry verticals.” Mello stressed culture: “Making everyone feel like family has helped attract top talent. They are excited about space and being part of a small company.” VS
