01:26:41 · Jordi Hays, Richard Starson, John Coogan
[01:26:41] S1: Yeah. Talk about talk about the progress to date. [01:26:44] S5: So we're we're just getting started. This is why I'm so so thrilled to be with you guys. Hopefully, it will be the first of many exciting announcements. So we, started around June, signed a $2,000,000 contract to build the systems pilot units. And then fairly quickly, we're extremely lucky to raise the round that converted very, very quickly. [01:27:08] S0: How much did you raise? [01:27:09] S5: It was 5,000,000 pre seed. [01:27:13] S0: I [01:27:16] S5: I need to give a lot of shout out if I basically start naming all of the people who supported that. It it it would take a little little while, but huge thank you to all of our supporters, Jamie Gal from WaveFunction, Qubit Capital, Mana Ventures, and many others who supported us and believe in this this mission and vision. This is a... The community of support and the outpour of support that we're seeing around the mission of building high power microwave systems, directed energy systems. And, also, a lot of people share our vision that we... America must lead in compact fusion, which is kind of a sleeper for us. We're just getting started on the research and the design of a compact fusion system. But once it succeeds, it it will change the game in how we move things and from hypersonics to supersonics to spaceflight. That's... This is the future that I hopefully will be announcing with you guys, in a in a few months or a year or a or a couple of years. [01:28:20] S0: Very exciting. [01:28:21] S1: Can't wait. [01:28:21] S0: Thank you so much.
01:28:21 · John Coogan, Jordi Hays, Richard Starson, Brian Manning
[01:28:21] S0: Thank you so much. [01:28:22] S1: Yeah. Really great to meet you, and congrats on all the progress. [01:28:24] S0: Have a great rest [01:28:25] S5: of so much. [01:28:25] S0: Appreciate you, [01:28:26] S1: Richard. Cheers. [01:28:28] S0: Let me tell you about Cisco. Cisco is the critical infrastructure for the AI era, unlock seamless real time experiences, a new value with Cisco. Our next guest will be joining in just a second with Brian Manning, Uzona Space Systems returning to the show, I believe, is here in [01:28:45] S1: Here we go. [01:28:45] S0: The waiting room. So let's bring Brian in to TV Panels. Brian, how are doing? [01:28:51] S4: Hey. It's up, guys. Good to be back. [01:28:52] S1: Welcome back Good to see you again. [01:28:54] S0: Congratulations on the progress. [01:28:56] S1: Great setup. Great setup today. [01:28:58] S0: What has changed since the last time we talked? It was maybe six months ago, five months ago. What's what's new in your world? [01:29:05] S4: Yeah. A whole lot of things. I think I was sitting a little further over last time on a stool, but it was a pretty empty warehouse still. [01:29:14] S0: Now he's got a chair.
01:29:14 · John Coogan, Brian Manning, Jordi Hays
[01:29:14] S0: Now he's got a chair. [01:29:16] S4: Yeah, right? That's sitting there's a little out of screen, but there's an actual satellite sitting over here. The next one that we built. We actually launched six satellites earlier this week to start actually deploying our, you know, the world's first commercial satellite navigation service. You know, really built to, you know, bring GPS into the, you know, modern technology era effectively and announced this morning a $250,000,000 funding round at a 2,450,000,000 [01:29:40] S0: evaluation. Thank you. [01:29:43] S1: That's what [01:29:45] S4: was waiting for. So... Yeah. A lot of things moving in groove in here. [01:29:49] S0: Amazing. Deep SpaceX lineage with, your personal experience and Steve Jervisin, SpaceX board member, leading the round. What, what what can you tell me about how you're co designing your satellites to work with the SpaceX product portfolio. I was not aware that, Starlink satellites sometimes go on specific rockets that are designed just for those. It's not all just free gap capacity. There's there's a lot of co design that happens there where the capabilities of the rocket are designed alongside the capabilities of the satellite. What what have you, designed around? What have you leaned into? What are you expecting to come down the pipe to unlock new capability? How does that back and forth work these days?
01:29:49 · John Coogan, Brian Manning
[01:29:49] S0: Amazing. Deep SpaceX lineage with, your personal experience and Steve Jervisin, SpaceX board member, leading the round. What, what what can you tell me about how you're co designing your satellites to work with the SpaceX product portfolio. I was not aware that, Starlink satellites sometimes go on specific rockets that are designed just for those. It's not all just free gap capacity. There's there's a lot of co design that happens there where the capabilities of the rocket are designed alongside the capabilities of the satellite. What what have you, designed around? What have you leaned into? What are you expecting to come down the pipe to unlock new capability? How does that back and forth work these days? [01:30:36] S4: For sure. Yeah. So the the satellites we just launched went up on a Falcon rocket, so they went up with SpaceX. Yeah. But as we're growing... And part of the reason we have the factory here is that, you know, we're growing from the point where we're launching satellites as a rideshare, where we only want like a small fraction of the rocket Yeah. To the point where we're launching enough satellites to grow from, you know, up to the full two fifty that we actually want the entire rocket. [01:30:57] S0: Got [01:30:57] S4: it. And so one of the things though that we're doing is making sure that we're designing it that it can go on any rocket that's out there. Oh. And I think SpaceX in many ways really set the standard with like the five meter fairing. [01:31:07] S0: Got it.
01:31:07 · John Coogan, Brian Manning
[01:31:07] S0: Got it. [01:31:08] S4: But that's been the standard size for most rockets around the world. We are looking forward to the Starship future also and how to make sure that we are future proofing ourselves to make sure that we can fly on Starship as it becomes ready for commercial companies. [01:31:21] S0: So with that standard five meter fairing, what are the trade offs that you're making to fill that efficiently, get the most performance out of your satellites? Is there a sweet spot number of satellites that you wanna fit into a full ride when you're at that stage? Like, what are the trade offs that you're making? [01:31:39] S4: Alright. The sweet spot is cram as money in there as possible. It's like you're you're paying for the whole rocket. You're still using it. Yeah. I I was I was a hockey player, so I remember the statement of like, you paid for the whole stick. You know, you gotta keep it on the ice and use the whole stick. [01:31:51] S0: There you go.
01:31:51 · John Coogan, Brian Manning
[01:31:51] S0: There you go. [01:31:51] S4: It's kind of the same with the rockets that the rocket price doesn't go down if you only fill Yeah. Half of Yeah. So that's one of the things, you know, our our current generation satellites, you know, we can fit, you know, in the neighborhood of 30 into a rocket. Our second generation satellites that we're moving to as we go from kind of ride shareable to full rocket, where we can fit 50 to 60. Woah. And so that means you effectively cut your launch prices in half as we And go it is taking a lot of lessons from what SpaceX did with Starlink, how do you flatten satellites out and pack them in very efficiently to use up you know, every ounce of volume and mass that that thing can carry. [01:32:29] S0: So what does that mean on the manufacturing side? Because all of a sudden, it seems like if there's a particular ride that you're booked on, you got to make sure that all 50 are done by the time [01:32:40] S4: Yep. [01:32:40] S0: Launch happens. Do you have 50 manufacturing lines? Are you... Do you have a, like, assembly line for this or multiple multiple lines? Like, what what has scaling manufacturing looked like at the company?