Space Florida is the state's aerospace finance and development authority, dedicated to strengthening Florida's position as a global leader in aerospace research, investment, exploration, and commerce. As the state's premier aerospace entity, Space Florida is committed to attracting and expanding the next generation of space industry businesses.

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Rob Long, president and CEO of Space Florida. He was named to the position last year following the retirement of Frank DiBello.

Rob has over 25 years of leadership experience in the aerospace industry. His expertise spans launch operations, logistics, and spaceport management. His strategic vision aims to position Florida as a global hub for aerospace commerce.

"We are definitely engaged from the start-up side, we do a lot with capital accelerator programs, we work with Florida Venture Forum and other similar organizations to male sure we're involved in some of those early aerospace companies. Small mid-cap companies to the largest Fortune 500 companies. We have the ability to deal with all of those," Long said.

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Kevin Stadnyk, co-founder and CEO of Obruta Space Solutions.

Obruta Space Solutions is a Canadian company specializing in space robotics and technologies. Their mission revolves around enabling satellite servicing and addressing the challenges of space debris removal. The company does not build hardware for those tasks, but rather develops the software that will eventually allow such spacecraft to operate autonomously.

The company is developing a rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD) system. With this "RPOD Kit", Obruta enables orbital service providers to perform services such as on-orbit refueling, life-extension, and debris removal—services which exponentially increase a space asset's value. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are currently conducting ROPD experiments in preparation for free-flying test in the future

"There will be humans in the loop for the initial and foreseeable future in some capacity," Stadnyk said. "Similar to self-driving cars, the end goal is reaching full autonomy, but we know that it's not realistic to start this whole technology by being fully autonomous. It's just won't be safe enough, it won't be reliable enough."

Kevin holds two degrees in aerospace engineering and a background focused on satellite attitude control, orbital mechanics, and space debris removal technologies.

On this edition of The Ex Terra Podcast, Tom Patton talks with Matt George and Josh Foerschler of Burns & McDonnell, a design/build company with expertise constructing facilities for the space industry.

Josh Foerschler is Business Development Lead for space-related facilities, and Matt George serves as a project manager for space-related facilities at Burns & McDonnell.

The company's portfolio includes a 125,000 sq.ft. facility for Intuitive Machines, which recently landed a spacecraft on the Moon. Incorporated into the design are advanced manufacturing and production spaces, 3D printing areas, machine shops, research and development laboratories, clean rooms, and large-scale spacecraft assembly areas. Unique to the facility are mission control rooms to track and manage lunar missions, and a propulsion test facility to assess lunar lander engine capabilities. The space also includes offices, meeting areas, conference rooms and other amenities for both Intuitive Machines and its partners/tenants.

"We built them basically an engine testing verification facility on Houston spaceport. They call it "The Flame Range" or "The Rocket Petting Zoo"," Foerschler said.