Guest: Dylan Taylor; Topics: Dylan's recent ride to space with Blue Origin, inflation and space economics, NewSpace economy and investment risks vs. rewards, Voyager Space Holding activities, SpaceX, the ISS and private space stations plus lots more.
Please direct all comments and questions regarding specific Space Show programs & guest(s) to the Space Show blog which is part of archived program on our website, www.thespaceshow.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm.
We welcomed back to the program Dylan Taylor, CEO of Voyager Space Holdings to discuss his recent space tourism trip with Blue Origin, our economy, inflation, NewSpace and equity investments, the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, commercial space innovation and much more. We started the discussion by asking Dylan about his experience with Blue Origin flying with New Shepard on the suborbital trip on December 11, 2021. You can see the entire trip on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG6b3mFnyjo. Dylan talked about his experience, including the training and vehicle familiarization. In addition, he talked about his fellow crew members, in particular he shouted out to Michael Strahan and Laura Shepard Churchley. Listeners asked lots of questions over a wide range of subjects, from safety concerns, to g forces, even asking if anyone got space sickness on the trip. One listener, taking a cue from various Space Show programs and my comments, asked Dylan for his thoughts on the likelihood of repeat customers. Don't miss his response to that one as it might surprise you. Dylan also told us about his going inverted to look out the big view windows. Listen to his comments to find out what that was all about. We talked about his flight for the first quarter of the program, then we moved to a discussion about our economy and the many potential factors that could influence NewSpace economies and investments along with the same for the rest of the country. Dylan said we were in an inflationary economy. He did not think it was transitory (I personally doubt anyone bought that explanation) plus he said that the actual inflation rate was probably between 6 and 11%. Later in the discussion he even hinted that it might be a bit higher. I asked our guest several investment focused questions. One thing our guest said was that equities were really the only thing for investment should one be able to do that with proper diversification. He said that large cap stocks were fairly valued, then he talked about value investment which might suggest lower growth or growth stocks which might suggest something different. Listen to this explanation followed by our to the point relevant discussion. I asked for his thoughts on Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Dylan did share his thoughts with us regarding space ETFs and you will certainly want to hear what he had to say. Part of his commentary had to do with being large enough for good diversification as in portfolio theory. He said maybe 8-12 might be the right number but that would also depend on the entries. I asked another question about space investments possibly have more political risk than similar terrestrial investments. Dylan replied in terms of regulatory concerns given that many NewSpace company customers include governments which can act differently than the private sector which gets most of its motivation through greed. When asked about a timeline to get out of inflation, he did some on air calculations for us and came up with a 4-5 year period depending on how much more money government spends by just printing money.
Dylan had much to say about the ISS and the risks associated with it continuing, especially in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the needed interdependence of both the US and Russia to work together to keep the ISS in orbit and functioning. He said there was a risk it would no make it to 2030. At the same time, he spoke to the opportunity this might present for many entries into the private space station market, including the entry from Voyager Space Holdings, Nanoracks and Lockheed, the StarLab Commercial Space Station. During this discussion, we also talked about picking winners in investing as compared to a good diversification plan and ecommerce. He mentioned Amazon as an example of what he was talking about during this part of the interview. Listener Joe then sent in an email asking about a probable SpaceX IPO. Dylan was not keen on the idea but listen to his reasoning and tell us what you think. You can do that by posting on our blog. Next, Fremont John called to talk about the Voyage Space and Altius DogTag grapple fixture project along with the Bulldog servicer along with removing space debris. John than asked our guest for his thoughts on using the Starship for a lunar habitat.
Based on a recent Space Show program, our listener Ben from Austin asked our guest if commercial LEO assets were being used to gather data for climate modeling. Don't miss what Dylan said but it sounded to me like that was in play plus the companies were in tune with protecting the environment in which they carry out space activities including launch along with LEO access. Green rocket fuel also came up and were discussed with our guest. Monitoring methane emissions from LEO or even higher orbits was mentioned and as you will hear is something done by lots of companies, including oil companies.
As we were approaching the end of the program, a few additional topics where submitted to our guest. One asked about electric commuter airplanes being developed. I asked about the potential of the new business SST jets being developed. Dylan was skeptical about both. I also asked about the possibility of private sector opportunities in beefing up the grid to resist an EMP attack. You can hear Dylan comment on all of these questions, just keep listening to what he said with us during this program. Listener Diane asked Dylan if he got blowback for going into space and not spending the money in the "approved" ways by those doing the blowback, i.e. naysayers. Dylan said he did not get any, was a bit surprised, but attributed it to his give back program which he explained in detailed. I believe this to be an important part of our discussion so do listen carefully. I asked Dylan if his plan was being adopted by others and he said he hoped it would be. This is yet another opportunity for you to share your thoughts with us by posting them on the blog. How about it?
Before ending, I asked our guest about the amount of money flowing in the economy, including NewSpace, to companies raising multiple rounds of funding but showing no operational income. This prompted Dylan to offer us a very thoughtful response that I urge you to hear in full. We can discuss this on future shows and even our Open Line show for Sunday, Feb. 27. Before ending, I asked our guest what he monitors to get a sense of where our economy is going. He talked about three things: Consumer sentiment, capitalization issues, & the arbitrage Delta with real inflation and bond rates, say the 10 year treasury which is now around 2.25%. Dylan spent a few minutes going into all three of these factors so do listen carefully as you may also want to follow his lead and monitor this information. We got an 11th hour call from Ft. Worth John mentioning that he did not think SpaceX would do an IPO because there would be no way for him to meet his fiduciary obligations with a public company with a plan to settle and permanently live on Mars. He said that would not get through due diligence of any public company. Both our guest and I tended to agree with John.
Dylan concluded by adding more information on his StarLab commercial space station project. He said that lots of what was going on today was a wake up call for us and others. Listen to what he said he meant with that statement. Keep in mind, reducing the ISS risk is important.
Please post your comments/questions for Dylan Taylor on our blog for this show. You can reach our guest through me here at The Space Show or though his own site, https://voyagerspace.com.
The Space Show
