60 years of doing business in the solar system

Doing Business in the Solar System, podcast episode 1: Yuri Gagarin in the bus on the way to the launch pad from where he made history in 1961. Credit: NASA.

April 12 is a special day in the space business. It’s the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s historic human spaceflight in 1961. In Episode 1, we’d like to take you through a historical journey telling you the differences between then, and now.

Doing Business in the Solar System is a new 10 part series on the Space Economy podcast hosted by Elizabeth Howell, SpaceQ’s Associate Editor. The series will air every other week in-between our regular episodes.

Back when Gagarin left Earth, launches and rockets were firmly in government hands. Today it’s a much more dynamic and active industry, with private companies doing everything from building space equipment to managing space operations. NASA’s even talking about commercial successors to the International Space Station. Where will the space industry go next and what will be its challenges moving forward?

Our episode will go over the biggest changes we’ve seen with private business. Newer rocket systems are self-landing and include 3D printing. Satellites are launching to space in fleets, providing Earth observations and telecommunications to people around the world. We’re seeing more types of missions and more mission flexibility, but the challenge will be to keep the enthusiasm of the young space industry going in the decades to come.

In today’s episode we will speak with Maxime Puteaux. Maxime is a principal advisor at Euroconsult. Since joining Euroconsult in 2012, Maxime has been managing consulting and research assignments related to space industry activities such as launch and manufacturing.

Doing Business in the Solar System – Episode 1

The Show

Listen to and Subscribe to the Podcast

SpaceQ’s podcasts, The Space Economy and Terranauts, are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and your favourite podcast app.

About Elizabeth Howell

Is SpaceQ's Associate Editor as well as a business and science reporter, researcher and consultant. She recently received her Ph.D. from the University of North Dakota and is communications Instructor instructor at Algonquin College.

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