Once the stuff of science fiction, moon mining is getting government backing. Seattle-based startup Interlune—a previous guest of the podcast— came out of stealth last year. Its mission: to harvest resources from the moon. Now, they’re ready to announce their first customers. The Department of Energy has purchased three liters of lunar-extracted helium-3 for a delivery by 2029. A nuclear energy byproduct, Helium-3 is useful for cryogenics, medical equipment and fusion power—but its scarcity comes with a hefty price tag at $20 million per kilogram. Interlune CEO Rob Meyerosn joins Morgan Brennan to discuss the massive opportunity in moon mining.

True Anomaly has just raised $260 million in a Series C funding round. The company, which develops spacecraft that can maneuver each other in orbit, will use the capital to ramp up production and support future missions. Co-founder & CEO Even Rogers joins Morgan Brennan to discuss securing and defending space.

April has been one of the stock market’s most tumultuous months ever. While defense and aerospace haven’t been entirely immune—as government spending on initiatives like space security rises, those boasting government contracts have proven to be safe havens for investors. Andrew Chanin, the co-founder & CEO of ProcureAM, is one of the minds behind the first-ever ETF fully dedicated to space stocks. He joins Morgan Brennan to discuss the investing landscape, the space economy, and where he sees opportunity in the volatility.

As Amazon looks to launch its first Kuiper satellite mission, space infrastructure’s role in enhancing global connectivity is coming to fruition. Skylo, a company that links cell phones to communication satellites, is also making moves—recently collaborated with Charter and Comcast to provide satellite connectivity for emergency messaging services. CEO Parth Trivedi joins Morgan Brennan to discuss the expanding space-based communications market, competition with companies like Starlink and AST SpaceMobile, and the company’s outlook.

After an eight day spaceflight turned into a 286-day space odyssey, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are back on Earth. The “stranded” NASA astronauts flew home in a SpaceX Dragon capsule, instead of the Boeing Starliner which carried them to the I.S.S. last June. Williams and Wilmore join Morgan Brennan to discuss the return to Earth, Boeing Starliner and the future of human spaceflight.

The U.S. Space Force has tapped Rocket Lab and startup Stoke Space to join the National Security Space Launch program as part of NSSL’s Phase 3 Lane 1 category. For Rocket Lab, it represents a big opportunity for its new Neutron rocket, a medium-lift vehicle under development. Founder & CEO Peter Beck joins Morgan Brennan to discuss the new award, the timeline for Neutron, and Rocket Lab’s company outlook.

Apex Space, a satellite manufacturing startup is celebrating on year of its satellite on orbit this month. Founded in 2022, the startup’s goal is to ease the production process of off-the-shelf satellite buses that help customers shift risk and money from making spacecraft to focusing on the missions they want to conduct. A member of Anduril Technologies’ “Super Friends” establishing a new American industrial base, the company secured as $46 million U.S. Space Force contract last month. CEO Ian Cinnamon joins Morgan Brennan to celebrate the milestone, challenges within the spacecraft supply chain, and how Trump 2.0 will tackle space policy.

Planet Labs marked its first quarter of profitability by adjusted EBITDA. The satellite imagery and earth observation data company saw its backlog surge in the fiscal fourth quarter by 115%. Co-founder, Chair & CEO Will Marshall joins Morgan Brennan to discuss the quarter and why he sees the company as being at an inflection point.