Closing Bell - Manifest Space: Europe’s Fastest Growing Space Startup with The Exploration Company CEO Helene Huby 10/26/23

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

Just two years old, The Exploration Company has raised the biggest Series A round by a space tech company in Europe, been selected as an AWS Space Accelerator, and recently inked a deal with Axiom Space to deliver cargo services for the private station builder. Co-founder & CEO Helene Huby joins Morgan Brennan to discuss the company’s rapid growth, lunar missions and incorporating sustainability into commercial space.

The Exploration Company is the fastest-growing space startup in Europe. Its 40 million euro raise represented the biggest Series A on the continent by a space tech company ever. Amazon selected it as a 2022 AWS Space Accelerator. It's only two years old. That market is going to grow very fast. We are moving from around about 5 billion-ish market per year, and it will grow up to around about 50 billion by 2040. The exploration company was founded by Elaine Ubi. It is developing a capsule, Nix,

after the mythological creator of the cosmos, to carry cargo and eventually humans to space. The startup is also homing in on a longstanding criticism of the spaceflight industry, the impact of emissions. On this episode, Ubi discusses flight plans, homing in on a longstanding criticism of the spaceflight industry, the impact of emissions. On this episode, Ubi discusses flight plans, lunar exploration, and how the company is cracking the code on sustainable fuels. I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is Manifest Space. So let's start with the exploration company. It's the fastest growing space startup in Europe. What are you doing?

Correct. We are building space capsule. And basically our mission is that we bring cargo and then humans to space station around the Earth. We bring cargo and humans back. Then we fly again because our capsule can be reused. We are first in the world to fly with green propulsion, and we are first in the world to fund such a capsule, which is a big one.

It's similar to Dragon by private investment. And you just mentioned Dragon. Is that your direct competitor? How big is this market, do you think? That market is going to grow very fast. We are moving from around about 5 billion-ish market per year, and it will grow up to around about 50 billion by 2040, if we include also moon transportation in it. So we talk about like space, in-space transportation, right?

So because right now it's not anymore about access to space, of course, this hugely important but kind of has been solved. But now we enter an area where it's about action in space and transportation in space. And this is really the market we focus on. So moving from around about 5 billion today to around about 50 billion, 5-0, 2040. And yes, SpaceX is, of course course a very dominant player in this market so a direct competitor on the capsule business and well our positioning is very simple we are based in Europe

in Germany in France we open in Italy in two weeks and we want to be number one in Europe and we want to bring to the world, let's say, an alternative solution, which is affordable, which is reliable, and which is launcher agnostic, meaning we can fly with Indian launchers, Japanese launchers, European launchers, of course, American launchers, which enable the countries to say, like India, hey, I want to use the service of the exploration company. And then we can say to India, okay, then we're going to use your launcher.

Same with Japan, same with Europe, and same with the United States. So I think this gives us a lot of flexibility and also a lot of buy-in in the various countries which are now interested to do more things in space. You just mentioned different countries. Are you already working with those countries or speaking with those countries? Yes, yes. We are actually launching our first baby capsule in three months from India. So we're already working with India. We are currently discussing with India our technical partnership on some key technologies of the, let's say, that needs to be developed to recover the capsule.

We are in discussion with Japan also. Of course, in Europe, this is our home country. So we hope that we can serve very fast the European market. And with regards to the United States, we are very proud and happy that the private space station Axiom Space signed with us some weeks ago, pre-working agreement, so they are basically buying a first mission not to know the end of 27, which is coming just around the corner in a few years. And we need to meet some technical gates in 25, but if we meet these gates, they buy a

full mission, which is pretty big. And for a startup, which is two years old, it's quite an achievement. So you can see we're already working with Europe, United States, India and Japan. And we have sort of discussions with other countries, especially Middle East, so Saudi and UAE. And I want to pick up on what you just said, which is the fact that your startup is just two years old and before this year is out, you are planning to put this first demonstration capsule in space. That's a very fast pace for a space company.

Yeah, it's very fast. Actually, this baby capsule, we built it in nine months. So it's a record from what we know. We are already now in the building phase of the second capsule demonstrator. I would love to show you some pictures. Basically, we are studying the integration. So we have already manufactured everything and that second capsule will be launched end of 2024. It's a big one, like I would say 25% of the size, so not the full size, subscale. But still, we are flying with clients already, not people, but cargo. We are sold out.

We have very credible clients like Open Space Agency, German Space Agency. Airbus is a client too. We have private client. We have one of the leaders of the cosmetic industry flying with us. And this is happening end of 24. So first flight, January 24, like baby capsule. private client, we have one of the leaders of the cosmetic industry flying with us. And this is happening end of 24. So first flight, January 24, like baby capsule, and second flight end of 24, this is a teenage capsule, and then we go for the full size vehicle. The first two capsules basically going to help us de-risk the re-entries or re-entering

the atmosphere because this is where you have a lot of risks and once we've mastered that then we go for the full size and then we're going to go to station and come back. Did you just say a cosmetic company? What is a cosmetic company doing in space? That's a great question. Well actually in space, in microgravity, you age faster, the skin is behaving differently, and so you have the opportunity to do some research about aging to understand better how you age. And that's what they are doing with us. So it's real R&D. We don't talk here about marketing. It's real R&D, and we're going to fly, it will be our first mission, right? So small mission, around about three hours, but already good enough so that they can observe some phenomena and then use that to improve the creams on Earth. Sign me up. Sign me up based on what they find out with that experiment, with that R&D. I want to talk a little bit about the capsule itself, Nix, because it's reusable.

You're going to use it, as you mentioned, for cargo and then eventually for human spaceflight as well. But one of the most interesting things to me is the fact that you're actually focused on the fuel as well and using a sustainable fuel, which we haven't actually seen with spaceflight in this way yet. Yeah, you're perfectly correct. You should join as an engineer, you know, perhaps if you want to change that. No, but so we are the first in the world actually to fly with a green fuel, a non-toxic fuel. Most of the capsule, all of the capsule today, they are using as main propulsion. They are using hydrazine or derivative of hydrazine. So that's a very toxic propellant. If I caricature, basically you spell it, you die. So you need to be in scaphander when you

fuel the capsule. You also need to first come with some devices when the capsule has splashed down to make sure like there is all the fuel is gone and there is no risk of, you know, astronauts going out and kind of breathing the hydrazine. So it's very toxic. Plus, it's costly in terms of the way it's operated because it's very toxic. And since around about 10 years, there's been more and more companies working on non-toxic fuel. And we basically leverage this progress in the technology. Because nowadays you have many small satellites which are using hydrogen peroxide, which is something that was known, of course,

since decades, but never really industrialized and used at scale with big thrusters. So that's what we're doing. We are tapping on the innovation that has happened in the past 10 years to industrialize the hydrogen peroxide, which is now flying in many small satellites. And basically, we are working together, the German Space Agency, so that we develop an ignition capability, which is very, very reliable. Because you can imagine if you fly next to a station, you have to dock. You cannot miss your ignition, right?

You need to be able to operate your spacecraft in a very, very precise manner. So we are tapping also on the research that has been performed in the German Space Agency, also in Poland. And long story short, we are developing in-house our own propulsion system. We are developing in-house our own capability to produce that fuel. So on the oxidizer side, basically hydrogen peroxide

that we need to purify. And then on the fuel side, we're going to use a hyperglyph fuel. So that ignites immediately so that we do not have any risk of non-ignition or late ignition that would then diminish, I would say, the safety of the capsule. So that's indeed first time in the world. So it means it has additional technical risks, but it means also if we succeed, and for the

time being, we are on track with our roadmap and we are, let's say, the first result that we have bring a with our roadmap. And we are, let's say, the first result that we have bring a lot of confidence. If we succeed, on the one hand, it's better for the environment, which is great. And on the other hand, the cost of operations are going to go down because we don't have to fuel our capsule with a scaphander.

We don't have to use all the sniffing mechanism when the capsule is going back. So this shall bring economies and potentially also the capacity to reuse the capsule more. So that's our objective. And it's very exciting actually for the team because we are really pioneering something here. That's really fascinating, especially because that has been one of the big criticisms of spaceflight overall is the fact that the fuels and how much fuel is consumed is so harmful for the environment. And so, and such an order of magnitude versus what we see with, for example,

when you see humans fly to the edge of space versus plane air flights. So it sounds like you're on the cusp of maybe perhaps cracking the code on what has been one of the biggest criticisms of this industry. Yeah, we are clearly making progress for the industry. We also engage in a certification process that we will finish actually this year, just before we raise our Series B, because we want to be able to measure carbon emission and then to reduce them and to be certified. So that will be done by your end.

But I'd like to add that basically many people think about space like, hey, this is really a very, very polluting industry. And especially space exploration, which has now the image of like billionaires flying around and coming back and paying crazy money and destroying the environment to have like a few minutes of fun. has now the image of billionaires flying around and coming back and paying crazy money and destroying the environment to have a few minutes of fun. Of course, this exists, but this is the very, very, very minority. And if you really realize what space has brought in terms of new technologies which are good for the environment, this is huge.

Solar panels were invented in space. If you take the space station, all the water is recycled. So like urine is recycled. The water that gets out of our mouth when we speak is recycled. And most of the water membranes technology that are used on earth for recycling water actually have been invented in space station.

So now one of the big challenges, for example, is how do we grow sustainably in a very reliable manner plants in space? Because if we go to Mars, it's a six-month trip, and you'll have no supermarkets on the way where you can stop and you say, hey, I'd like to buy some salads or whatsoever. And you also have no cargo resupply. Currently, food is being brought up and down to space station. So it means you really need to have agriculture in the spaceship,

which is highly sustainable so that it uses as little water and energy as possible, and which is very, very reliable so that whatever happens, you still can have your plants growing and you still can eat. So all that research, for example, is feeding agriculture on Earth. And I think we need to have a bit this big perspective that space is just a very, very harsh environment. So everything we develop in space is being developed for very, very harsh environment. So everything we develop in space is being developed for very, very harsh conditions and it's kind of pushing the edge of our human knowledge and because of that it has a boomerang effect on here on earth on the technology that we develop and by definition

because it was very harsh environment in space and the technologies can be reused or reused from technology which are protecting the environment on earth not mentioning of course all the data we collect from satellites which are helping us to understand climate change and to fight against climate change and to detect for example uh fires forest fires etc so i just want to say a few words again this image that space is bad for the environment and it's clear that when a rocket launches, it creates a lot of CO2. This is something we need to work on as the aviation industry is now currently working

on how to reduce the CO2 emission of the aviation industry. So we industry, we need to work on that and we are doing our part. We're flying with green propulsion. But we also need to think about how space has been serving the pollution environment on Earth

through data and through new technologies like water membranes, solar panels, et cetera. It's a great point. And I like this idea of that, you know, space is a harsh environment and what those applications could look like and innovations could look like back on Earth as well. Are you working on that?

Mars colonization and what that's going to look like and innovations could look like back on earth as well. Are you working on that? Mars colonization and what that's going to look like and playing your role at the exploration company? So yes and no. We are a startup so we need to be, that's the no part, we are a startup we need to be very focused right and we need to fly as fast as possible. Our first product, which is our low-earth orbit cargo capsule with control to fly humans. So really the very, very first step, first product we're going to bring to the market is this low-earth orbit capsule. So in that sense, let's say Mars is far away. But, like, you can be a startup. You can be very focused.

You can, of of course you start small you go fast but of course you have big dreams and you have big vision for the future basically and uh i think our dna at the exploration company is perhaps not so much mars or the moon or like the destination specifically or the race i think we will reach this destination that's just a fact it's like when we think about 15th century 16th century it took one century basically to discover the what we were calling at that time you know the new world from the earth and and we did that when we as humans got the capability to build big ships that would be solid enough to cross the oceans.

So there was a technical breakthrough with these big ships. And then we just started to explore. And we explored. It took around about 100 years. And I think we'll see the same in space. We are now at this turning point when we know how to build spaceships that can be reused, that can be refueled. So the cost of flying in space, traveling in space

is going to go down tremendously. And it will not take five years, 10 years. It didn't take five years, 10 years to discover the Americas and to kind of industrialize the roads and the new destinations. So perhaps it will take again one century and so that's why what we're interested about at the exploration company is not so much destination because that's going to happen and of course we want to be part of that and of course we want to contribute to go to mars and we want our spacecraft to go to Moon first and then Mars. This is for sure. But I think the how we go there is very, very important. And, you know, in Europe we have this history of

wars and then, this is quite unique actually, after centuries of wars somehow we've been able to live in peace and to cooperate since now more than 70 years. And we'd like to bring this spirit of cooperation in space. Space has been for years also a great place for cooperation. I think about the International Space Station, for example. And this cooperation between nations is disappearing right now because we have a rise of tensions between, of course, US and China, US and Russia. And we can see that already in low Earth orbit, where we don't have the international space

stations going to retire. And then we'll have private space station. We'll have also station from China, from Russia, from other countries, et cetera. And what we see right now happening on the moon is basically a confrontational race between two big entities on Earth. So I'm not a naive person and I fully understand what is behind. But I also believe it's important

that there are some companies like us which are bringing into this building of the new space world some cooperative spirit. And so as an example, we work with open source interface in our design. And as I was mentioning, we can be launched by an Indian launcher, a Japanese launcher, an American launcher. And, you know, I hope one day we can fly to a Chinese space station.

Also, just for safety reasons, that's important. And I hope one day, you know, we can contribute to do something as important as doing a mission between American space station and Chinese space station back and forth. And so especially at a time when on the Earth we have so many wars and we have this capacity, this human capacity to build cooperation, that's really something which is part of our DNA and the expression that we want to foster in space. So yes, for Mars. Yes, for the moon. Again, longer term, short term, we are very, very focused on our first low-erthorbic product, our first capsule. But everything we do, we want to do it with this cooperative spirit.

I mean, to your point, the moon and the lunar activities and the funding that's going towards that right now does seem like it's closer. Maybe not. I wonder what your timeframe and your vision is for the exploration companies role in all of that here over the coming years and into the next decade. Okay. So for step number one, lower orbit. So this is happening in five years, basically. A bit less, actually. So step number two, because we plan to fly end of 27, so we are end of 23, so it's around about four years.

So that's step number one. Step number two, of course, is moon. Here, we've already started the building of our Lunar V-Cole. We have started the engine, actually, that we've fired already several times. And we are reusing the same technobricks to build a vehicle that can bring down mass from the Gateway, which is currently a hole in the Artemis architecture, because you use Orion to bring people up, you use Orion to bring people down from the Gateway, you use human landing systems to bring people up and down from

the Gateway to Lunar Surface and then back to Gateway. But what do you do with all the samples that you've collected? Orion is not sufficient to bring that stuff down, And that's one hole that we want to serve with our Lunar V-Call. And we want to be ready for 2028, 2030 at the latest. And then, of course, going to the moon itself with our Lunar Lander, which is, again, same technobreaks, same engine. So we try to reuse as much as possible. So this is also around about the same time frame, 2030,

and something very specific we are developing at the expression company is that our lunar engines, so the one going to Gateway, the one going to lunar surface, they can be refueled. So a concept operation we have in mind is that we'll be the speedboat, we go to lunar surface, we land, and we have the big container ship, SpaceX Starship, which is there also, and we can refuel our speedboat with Starship, because we send oxygen, so the same propellant as Starship, and then we can reuse our lander again and again, and we can basically hop at lunar surface, and

we can bring rovers and drillers to the various places where they need to be placed. Because our vision is that we are at a time when you go to moon for, let's say, prestige purposes, geopolitical purposes, and scientific purposes. And so for scientific purposes, you have drillers and rovers. But they are small because you collect samples. But if we are serious about, hey, we want to really drill and exploit and use the water, which is at lunar surface or helium-3, for example,

so that with that raw material, we can transform it into an energy source and we can refuel basically vessels. Then we speak about complete different size of drillers and rovers. It's industrialization of the exploration basically. And it's a driller's rover, which are typically like three ton, sometimes more. And that's what we design our lander for. It's not small lander, you know, for scientific mission.

It's not the huge starship. It's not a small lander for a scientific mission. It's not a huge Starship. It's kind of in between where we can carry all these big drillers and hovers that will start basically to drill, to dig, and to industrialize the lunar exploration. And since we can refuel ourselves with Starship, we believe this is a great value proposition for the lunar exploration. So this is what is coming. And Mars is still a little bit far away. I think we'll have, I'm sure actually, we have to come with a completely different design because a small capsule, I mean small is still 10 tons, but a capsule of the lunar lander,

which is around about 13 tons, that kind of vehicle is too small to go to Mars. So we have to reinvent ourselves and to come up with a new design. So a bit for later. That does it for this episode of Manifest Space. Make sure you never miss a launch by following us wherever you get your podcasts and by watching our coverage on Closing Bell Overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan.