00:24:29 · Philip Johnston, Ezra Feilden, Molly O'Shea
[00:24:29] S1: We'll go to the fab shop Alright. So we can see where we're welding and fabricating various aluminum and steel parts, some of which for the actual spacecraft and most of which is for test equipment and other things. Maybe Ezra can talk a bit about the fab shop. [00:24:49] S2: Yeah, this is a big upgrade from our last facility. So we've literally just moved in here as of like the last few days. So everything's a little bit chaotic, but we moved from this tiny office building into into this lovely manufacturing space. And this area of it is we call the fab shop. So this is where we do dirtier work so that the cleaner work goes on in there. Dirtier work happens here, so we're talking sheet metal work, welding, and general general fabrication. So we have lots of fab shop equipment here. We have MIG welding, TIG welding, laser welding. We have a shear for sheet metal, and right here we have the manufacturing demonstrator for Starcloud three. So Starcloud three is our largest platform. It's a two ton vehicle approximately. Okay. So this is the Starcloud three manufacturing demonstrator. So we we wanted to get some experience building a primary structure of the scale of our Starcloud three vehicle. So this vehicle is designed to go through the Pez dispenser door for Starship. It's around two tons, fully loaded, 235 kilowatts, and we can deploy up to 50 of them per Starship launch. [00:26:11] S0: My god. And... I've not seen Starship where I have no idea on the scale of that, but you said two of these fit in? [00:26:21] S2: So per layer. So you get two two of these.
00:26:21 · Ezra Feilden, Molly O'Shea
[00:26:21] S2: So per layer. So you get two two of these. [00:26:24] S0: Wide and then... [00:26:25] S2: Wide and then 25 tall. [00:26:27] S0: Oh my god. [00:26:28] S2: So it's... Yeah. From here to the ceilings of these stacked in... So right now, we're [00:26:31] S0: in the middle of Starship. We're inside of it. [00:26:33] S2: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That gives you an idea of the diameter of Starship, the fact that this can fit in there. It's an enormous vehicle. [00:26:41] S0: How have you guys been launching today? What are, I know you have three launches coming up as well. [00:26:45] S2: So our first launch was with Falcon nine. So yeah, Falcon nine rideshare mission. Our upcoming launches are all with Falcon. And, yeah, it's really it's really hard to beat the the the benefits and the economics of of rideshare when you're when you're producing single missions like we are at the moment. The future is definitely Starship, and that's what we're we're gearing up for here. [00:27:13] S0: What's the process like for booking a ride? [00:27:16] S2: First of booking rideshare is unbelievably easy. So it's actually the... Basically, the first thing we did as a company was we booked the launch for Starcloud one. [00:27:24] S0: Do you have to book it really far in advance? Like how do you, how do you, I mean, you're like gunning for getting on the vehicle, but like how does that work?
00:27:24 · Molly O'Shea, Ezra Feilden
[00:27:24] S0: Do you have to book it really far in advance? Like how do you, how do you, I mean, you're like gunning for getting on the vehicle, but like how does that work? [00:27:32] S2: Yeah. So we, we booked about, yeah, twenty one months in advance. And the process is... The the initial booking is you you can pay for it with a credit card. You can get a confirmation straight away. You could. You could. Rideshare is... Falcon nine rideshare is going away, though. So these were the rosy days when, it was much easier to get a single, payload launched. So we're in a transitionary period at the moment where Falcon nine's being wound down and, yeah, the Starship has yet to be wound up. So we're definitely in a crunch time at the moment when it comes to launch. [00:28:10] S0: What is the process for that, though? Do you need insurance? What happens if it doesn't go to plan?
00:28:10 · Molly O'Shea, Ezra Feilden
[00:28:10] S0: What is the process for that, though? Do you need insurance? What happens if it doesn't go to plan? [00:28:17] S2: So it's... Insurance is relatively inexpensive for Falcon nine because it has such a strong track record, you know, 300 launches, consecutive launches without a failure. But... So you can ensure the failure on launch. Yeah. The rocket explodes. This payload doesn't separate. That kind of thing. It's much more difficult to ensure things going wrong with the spacecraft as it's, you know, this is the first first spacecraft of of its type to be built. So we we got insurance for the for the launch, and, you know, that can... If if something goes wrong, then that can give you a bit of a financial payout. But what we... What it can't compensate you for is the lost time, which is really the most valuable resource for like a fast moving startup. So, yeah, I'm slightly on the fence of the value of ensuring payloads, but, yeah, we'll take it case by case. [00:29:12] S0: We were just at Rocket Lab and we did a tour. We did a series there And the one topic that keeps on getting delayed is Neutron. How do you think that will or will not affect the market if and when it starts to be serviceable?
00:29:12 · Molly O'Shea, Ezra Feilden, Philip Johnston
[00:29:12] S0: We were just at Rocket Lab and we did a tour. We did a series there And the one topic that keeps on getting delayed is Neutron. How do you think that will or will not affect the market if and when it starts to be serviceable? [00:29:32] S2: Yeah, think just yesterday they publicly announced the first flight will be 2027. Composite manufacturing is really hard. I know from personal experience, very large composite structures often take a bit longer than you expect, especially when you're producing them for the first time and you're running the tooling for the first time. I have a lot of faith that Rocket Lab can get Neutron flying regularly. They've proven that they... You know, a 100 launches of Electron so they can do scale. So, yeah, we're definitely rooting for them as well. [00:30:11] S0: Alright. So now we're walking around here. You have a motorcycle. We're gonna go look at that. Hey. [00:30:15] S1: We can look at it if you want. What... Who's is that? It was a joke, by way. I Bailey's. Think [00:30:21] S0: Does that go into space? [00:30:22] S1: Maybe. Depends how fast they go. Everyone's laughing. I'm permanently terrified that somebody's gonna kill themselves mobile guy, half a teenage. [00:30:30] S0: Yeah, that is a liability. [00:30:31] S1: Yeah, yeah. So this is kind of interesting. It's a half built, zero gravity sort of offloading rig, and so we have these runners that run-in two axises, and so the deployable Starcloud two, runs down this. This is one half of it. Yeah, the other half goes that side, so it's like 120 foot long deployable.
00:30:31 · Philip Johnston, Molly O'Shea
[00:30:31] S1: Yeah, yeah. So this is kind of interesting. It's a half built, zero gravity sort of offloading rig, and so we have these runners that run-in two axises, and so the deployable Starcloud two, runs down this. This is one half of it. Yeah, the other half goes that side, so it's like 120 foot long deployable. [00:30:56] S0: Oh my god. [00:30:57] S1: Yeah. So that small package you saw there extends down the length of this, and then on one side and then down the length of that on the other side. [00:31:06] S0: Oh my god. [00:31:07] S1: Yeah, yeah. And the first few segments of that is a radiator segment. That's the radiator we've designed and fabricated in house. As Adi was mentioning, our design is way more efficient than any other, so when we launch in January, it'll be by far the largest commercial deployable radiator in space, and the the nearest comparison is the International Space Station. Our radiator is at least 10 times less mass per watt of dissipation than the ISS radiator and about 500 times less cost per watt of dissipation than the ISS radiator. Now the ISS is an easy benchmark to meet on cost, but on mass, it's quite an achievement. One [00:31:45] S0: of the biggest topics, and I know we talked about this with Adi, is the economics of this. Are making more economical satellites going out in space and the vehicle itself. So that's one thing. And so I'd love to break that down in the economics there and then also further drill down the difference between on land, like terrestrial data centers versus orbital.