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We can't limit ourselves with what we think can be accomplished.
And so it's, we need the people who can innovate, who can come up with these big, maybe crazy ideas and take those big, crazy ideas and work with a team to figure out how to make it work.That's the best advice I think I can give.
Hi, I am Kirsten Whittingham, and you are listening to Your Business in Space.I am president of MaxSpace, and that means that I am part of lowering the cost of doing business in space.
Our modules are the most cost effective habitation modules, hands down. Modules are the platform in which we do work in space.
So the International Space Station is constructed of several modules, and the commercial destinations that are going to be replacing the International Space Station will also be constructed of at least one, if not more, modules.
Those modules will have human habitation structures in it, the crew sleep quarters, they'll have places for the crew to eat.
but they will also have places for the crew to conduct research, to do manufacturing operations for the benefit of humanity here, and to do other things that we probably haven't even thought of yet.When I was three years old, I told
my aunt that I wanted to be an astronaut.And she would tell me about this later, and she would say, even at three years old, you were so persistent that I knew you would end up in the space industry.
So she was telling me this story around the time that I went to space camp as a kid.So I lived in Tennessee, I was able to go to space camp in Huntsville, Alabama. And I remember her telling me this story.
We were sitting on our couch in the living room.I thought, well, that's so cool.This is just all I've ever wanted to do.And by the time I went to space camp, that's when I realized I don't really care about being an astronaut.
That was just the language I had as a three-year-old.That's the hero.That's the celebrity.But once I got to space camp, I understood more about what flight control is.And I thought, oh, that's really what I want to do.
Those people are leading the mission.They're calling the shot.They're helping to troubleshoot when things go wrong. I want to do that.So that's from then on, that's what I said I wanted to do.I got my aerospace engineering degree.
And then I did do that.I actually got to go be a flight controller at NASA.I was a flight controller in both the space shuttle and the space station programs.Wasn't my first job out of school, but that was sort of the first real one that I had.
I stayed out for a long time.And yeah, I just I lived out my childhood dream.And I'm proud to be able to say that I did that.
So, when I was in high school, I was in high school in rural Tennessee, you know, while other people probably like had AP classes and things like that.We didn't.We barely had computers.It was not a great place for me to be supported in my dreams.
We didn't have. even like engineers, you know, where I grew up.Everybody was farmers or factory workers or that type of thing.So I didn't have a lot of role models.But again, I knew what I wanted to be, so it didn't really matter.
And I just forged ahead.Like I said, I went off to Embry-Riddle, studied aerospace engineering.And that was my first understanding that this career that I had chosen was not one that was very balanced from a gender diversity aspect.
I showed up to my first class at Every Riddle, and it was a liberal arts class, like an English class where, you know, at a normal university, that would be pretty 50-50.No, at Every Riddle, it was two girls, myself being one of them, and 30 guys.
And we were sitting in a circle, and all the guys were just staring at the girls. This is really an interesting mix.I didn't really understand that because it was such a technical university, that this would be every class that I was in.
If I had more than three girls in a class, it would be strange.What was interesting, my first job out of college actually wasn't at an Air Force base.And I took that job because the Columbia accident had happened.
They weren't hiring a lot of flight controllers at that time, so I needed to to do something for a few years while they figured that out.I was the only woman in the facility.I had a bathroom to myself.I never saw women at work.
It was definitely strange.And I will say I had a great experience there though, that the men who were in that facility were great advocates for me.It felt like family.I can't say enough good things about the people at Arnold Air Force Base.
It was a great experience. And then when I went to NASA, it was interesting, because this is my first time kind of seeing a 50-50 split.
I never counted it up, but I felt like most of the meetings that I was in as a flight controller, they were very balanced.The flight control discipline, if you watch it on TV, you will see a lot of women in the room.
You will see women as flight directors.And it just felt, like I said, balanced.I never really felt singled out or had issues. But that was the last time.
I mean, like, in the rest of my career, I can quite tell many times where I have been the only woman in the room, or maybe not the only woman in the room, but the only woman at the table.
You know, the ones that are making the decisions, I might be the only woman there. I definitely have been in training classes where I'm like, oh, it feels like I'm back at Embry-Riddle.It's me and a bunch of guys.So it's interesting.
I'm glad I had the Embry-Riddle experience in some ways because, again, I felt very safe there.Embry-Riddle did a nice job.I never felt like I was singled out or I didn't feel scared or anything.
So that was a great way to be introduced to, hey, it's going to be uncomfortable sometimes.You're going to be the only one that looks like you in that room.
You just have to sort of work through it and find ways to be able to say the things that need to be said and to have those be heard.
I've also been just very lucky, though, that throughout my career that there have been a lot of male advocates at each of these places.I talked earlier about Arnold Air Force Base.
I've just been lucky with men who will say, no, no, no, wait, let her finish.She wasn't done yet.That's great.And I hope that Men and women will do that for each other because it's not always just a gender thing, it can be a race thing.
Making sure that people have voice is important.So after NASA, I went to a very cold state.If you're familiar with the US, I went to Minnesota and I actually helped Cirrus, which is an aviation, a general aviation.
I helped them produce a business jet, the first of its kind, got that to market.And then I wanted to warm it up a little bit, so I convinced my husband to move.And I took a job at Raytheon, which is a major defense contractor.
I worked in their Pratt & Whitney military engines division.I led a nearly billion dollar P&L there. 22 international air forces plus the United States Air Force.
That's where I learned how passionate I was really about profit and loss or P&L management, customer relationships, leadership, all of those things were a big part of my job there.
Then I moved on to Axiom Space because I wanted to get back into the space business because that's what I grew up wanting to do.And so I felt the call during COVID to move back into the space industry.
And at the time, Axiom was hiring, and I was really intrigued by what they were doing.And I thought, hey, I have all this business background.So not only do I have the space flight background, because I was a flight controller for several years,
But now I know how to run a business and now I know how to work with international governments and know how to lead teams and build strong teams.And so I wanted to bring all that experience to Axiom, which was great.
I was able to help them sign contracts with international governments and manage the first commercial missions there. And, you know, now I've transitioned to Maxspace.
I'm so excited about being part of this because I think what is really necessary in this industry is finding a way to do what we want to do in space in ways that don't cost billions and millions of dollars.
Nobody has that kind of money to fund those businesses or the ones that do.You know, it's still tough.And looking at how do we lower the barrier to entry for everyone? Because even billionaires who might want to take a trip to space, that's all nice.
That's great.And I support space tourism.But I want to be able to see the small businesses who are manufacturing things like the retinal implants.Those types of things are just so interesting to me.They do so much good on Earth.
But these small companies, and make no mistake, it's small companies that are doing these things, they need a lower cost of entry into this field.
So by joining Maxspace and seeing how much they can reduce the cost of the architecture that's in space, I'm super excited about what that further enables in the space economy.
I think when it comes to people who aren't super tied in to space, when it comes to the business of space, the biggest misconception is that nobody cares except for the people that are in the space industry.
But those of us who are in it know that your cell phone wouldn't work without space. There's so many things that we use today.I just posted the other day on LinkedIn about it.
Like we could all be using our Rand McNally paper atlases to navigate, but we're not.We're using our phone and we're not having to do that because of space and the GPS satellites.There's communication satellites.
There's things that help us monitor the climate, make better decisions about what to plant, when to plant them from an agricultural standpoint. monitoring fires, making sure that those get put out more quickly and saving money in the economy.
So there's just so many ways that space touches all of the world.And those cell phones are probably the biggest example of it.To be successful in space, I believe that companies really need to have the right leadership team.
And that probably is a mix of people who have a spaceflight background.It is a mix of people who have the technical expertise to qualify and do things in space because it is very different than on earth.
But it also includes people who understand how to run businesses.It includes a lot of other roles.There's space lawyers, there's financial people.So having the right leadership team
that is not only passionate about space, but also knows their stuff and can work together really well is what it takes to be successful.
I'm sure there will be companies that are successful that don't meet those criteria, but I think there's already evidence of companies that are struggling because they don't meet that criteria.So that's what I think it takes to be successful.
I think we're doing a really good job with that right now at Maxspace.Our leadership team includes our chief technology officer.He built the first two expandables that are on orbit.
Genesis One launched in, I believe it was 2006, and it's still in orbit.So that's great. It speaks to our heritage.Aaron, our CEO, is co-founder of Made in Space.People who follow the space industry will be familiar with Made in Space.
It sold to Redwire Space and it did the first 3D printing on the International Space Station. So you have some really good, strong technical background, a bit of business background.Both of them have owned their own businesses.
I bring in a bit more of that in the spaceflight operation.So that's an exciting start to it.And then hopefully, as we begin to attract more investment, more customers, we'll just continue to round that out.I think
definitely keeping an eye on how does it all work together?
How are these people supporting one another and yet advancing backspace in some specific area, whether that's a lawyer with the spaceflight background, or whether that's additional engineering staff, that type of thing.
And just making sure it's cohesive in that these are people that are truly experts in their area.
piece of advice that I got early in my career so that I carried forward with me today is that you have to speak, in this instance, to the flight director, the person that's in control.You have to speak to them like you would speak to your parents.
So when you think about that, that means your parents, you probably talk to them about your work. quite a bit.
You're not using acronyms, you're not using big heavy technical jargon, but there are certain words that they're going to hear come up over and over and over again.So you can use those because they'll be familiar with that.
But beyond that, you need to assume that that person in charge really doesn't know a lot about what you're doing.
And it's interesting because the flight directors, they go through classes that teach them about every system on the space station or the space shuttle, whichever you were working.
But the point was, they have a lot to think about, and you can't trust that they remember all the things.So you really have to scale it back and explain things in clear, simple English.And so I've used that pretty well throughout my career.
I can't say I'm always perfect about it, but it helps you address with your audience, whoever that is.Maybe it's an executive, or maybe it's a customer, and just connect better. We can't limit ourselves with what we think can be accomplished.
And so we need the people who can innovate, who can come up with these big, maybe crazy ideas, and take those big, crazy ideas and work with a team to figure out how to make it work.That's the best advice I think I can give.
Our first mission is scheduled to launch in Q1 of 2026.We are already manifested by SpaceX, and we're really looking forward to that.We call it Alpha 20.The 20 means 20 meters cubed.If you're like me, you have no idea what that means.
But what I would say is, if you see the module, it's sizable.You probably wouldn't want to live in that small of an environment.But it is something that is definitely bigger than a person with all their stuff, right? So, that is our first expandable.
And just for definition purposes, you might also hear it called an inflatable or soft good structure is kind of what NASA sometimes calls it.
Try not to use the inflatable term too much because for some people outside of the space industry, that triggers this like popping. and we don't want that.These are made of materials like Kevlar, which is a bulletproof material.
This is a very, very strong, multi-layered, soft, good structure that can pack up into a very compressed, I call it like an umbrella.When you see umbrellas when they're first sold, it's very tightly wrapped up.
And then when you want to deploy it, it goes way far out, right?It's similar, but in this regard, for our expandables, we do use a gas. to expand it all the way out.
If you have people in there, you would use air, for example, but just require that it's a crew habitat.It could also be autonomous with robotics on the inside to conduct work.But yeah, that's what we're doing.
So Q1 2026, that will be our worst mission.And we're looking forward to showing the world what we can do with that. So, right now, what I'm focused on is thinking about all the other possible applications of our expandable architecture.
So, all 3 of us that are on the leadership team, we're all very focused on human spaceflight and far off in the future, we would like to be part of lunar habitats and Martian habitats and those types of things.
But right now, I do think that there's other opportunities for us in low Earth orbit today.And I think it's more than people might think on the surface, right?
So looking at what are those possible applications, who do I need to talk to in order to understand their requirements for that, and to see if that's a good fit for us to sort of play in.
I'm Kirsten Whittingham, and you've been listening to Your Business in Space.All the ways to connect with me are in the links in the show notes.To discover more, head to interastra.space.
Your Business in Space is brought to you by the InterAstra Institute.New episodes are available on Spotify, Apple Music, and most everywhere podcasts are found.To be the first to know when the next episode drops, head over to interastra.space.
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