Brian Taylor on Lux Aeterna's Reusable Re-Entry Satellites

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What's going on,

Brian? How are you doing?

Hey guys, uh happy to be here.

Thanks so much for joining you.

Please introduce yourself and the company.

Yeah, my name is Brian Taylor. I'm the founder and CEO of Luxernno. We're based in Denver, Colorado, and we build fully reusable satellites. Okay. And our idea of reuse that is via re-entry. So they are also re-entry vehicles.

Okay. uh what does the satellite mean in this case? We've talked to some folks that build satellite buses. We've talked to people that build stuff that goes on the satellite buses. And the supply chain, the the the orbital economy is starting to fragment into nonvertically integrated players. And so where do you sit? Where do you want to play? Where do you see yourself expanding into?

Yeah. So we build a fully functional satellite vehicle, space vehicle. Um so it has solar arrays, propulsion system, uh attitude control, avionics, everything. So traditionally this is called a bus, but I agree uh you know in in the latest industry that's starting to become fragmented. Um, so we can host a payload that does something in orbit. Um, whether that's in space manufacturing or earth observation or something like that. Um, but our vehicle is the backbone that can support that. Uh, that same vehicle can do re-entry. Um, and everything comes back, which is one of the novel pieces here. So for launch, you're probably partnering with SpaceX and potentially Blue Origin in the near future, maybe the other providers. Uh, in terms of customers that want to put stuff on your satellite, what is the highest value thing to do in space that I'd want to bring back? Because the Starling satellites that go up, I don't know how much those cost, but it seems like Elon's pretty happy with them just crashing down every once in a while. um what what what type of activity in space are we going to be like, "Yeah, we're going to put that up there, but it's really expensive, so let's make sure we bring it back down."

Yeah. So, the near-term answer there is in space manufacturing. Um and so doing some processing of materials, whether it's pharmaceuticals, biotissue, semiconductors, things like that. Um, and that's really uh where you you process some atoms and you need to bring those atoms back down instead of just kind of communications and things like that.

Um, you know, that's the one that that depends on re-entry the most.

Um,

so that's to us that's really kind of the short term. uh in the longer term we're building a fleet of satellites and when that happens it's really these new mission architectures that get opened up. Um so right now the only knob you have to turn to get more value out of your satellite is to make it last longer uh and and be in space longer. Um, you know, we have a vision where you might design a mission around um a six-month mission timeline, a one-year mission timeline, a three-year mission timeline, and that doesn't make sense um when the satellite could last 5 years. Uh but when it's economical to actually design the mission differently, we think there's there's a vast amount of applications that will actually open up as possibility.

Yeah. Where's Oh, sorry, Jory.

Uh sorry, just clarification. So, so the fleet of satellites that you want to have up at some point, the the function of the fleet would be to help other like what what is that what is that fleet uh doing once it's at scale?

Yeah. So, the idea is that we have a fleet that can host uh a variety of payloads from defense payloads to commercial payloads in space manufacturing payloads to uh you know other applications like earth observation. Um, so think of it like our uh constellation that does get refreshed on a regular basis. Um, but we're flying all sorts of different customers applications. Um, but we're operating, we are the fleet operator.

Got it.

So much more flexible. If I want to do something in space, there was an amazing flip that happened when I didn't need to figure out how to build a rocket because SpaceX created launch capacity. Now I'm not even gonna have to figure out how to have a satellite up there that can get back and forth. It's like I just decide what I want to do up high or in zero gravity or really fast. And it just like I call you, you call SpaceX and the rest is history.

We got to put we got to put one of the interns up there when you're ready. When you're ready.

I don't think they fit. Yeah, I mean that is a good question. Uh how big is uh is a typical satellite that you you're thinking of building? What are the tradeoffs of going bigger versus smaller? Obviously the fairing in Starship is getting pretty big but it does feel like SpaceX sells like particular slots for satellites.

Yeah, totally. So our first vehicle Deli is designed around the launch infrastructure that exists today. Um and Transporter and SpaceX are the most uh you know regular and and reliable ride to space. So our first vehicle uh Deli has those constraints kind of put on it. Um, and so we fit in one of those slots. Our first vehicle is about 200 kg, 400 pounds. Um, with a payload capacity of about 30 kilograms or 60 pounds. Um, and so yeah, that that's about the size.

So you could bench press this, but you couldn't rep it.

But but it but so is like 6ish feet by what?

Um, it's about I would like think of it as like a three foot by 3 foot by 3 foot cube.

Got it. Got it. Got it. Cool. Uh what's the team like and how much money did you raise?

Yeah. Um so we just closed our seed round so we raised $10 million.

Congratulations.

Thank you very much for that.

Um yeah, we're super happy about that round. That gets us all the way through our first demonstration launch. So um crazy you can do stuff in space for 10 mil. Uh what a time to be alive. Uh how big is the team? Where are you based?

Yeah, totally. So, we're based in Denver, Colorado. Um I'm at our HQ right now. Uh we have 14 people uh right now and we'll grow to about 25 between now and launch. Um great time.

So, as always, you close around and you're hiring. So, uh we are that case, please reach out. So, yeah.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time. This is very exciting.

Congrats to the whole team.

Yeah, amazing work. Uh we'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much.

Thanks a lot, guys. Appreciate the time.

Goodbye.

Amen.

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