In DC, even the happy hours are out of this world.
At Space Happy Hour, people all over the industry attend—which is why Bryce Kelly, a strategy and transformation consultant at Deloitte, loves making regular appearances to connect friends with opportunities.
Growing up in Seattle, WA, Kelly says he naturally fell into following off-Earth activities in that “big aerospace town.” That lifelong interest turned into a career while he was majoring in international relations at Pomona College in southern California, after an aspiring-space-lawyer classmate showed him that the space industry included more than just engineers.
“I started researching,” Kelly said. “I was like, ‘Oh my, gosh, wait. The space industry is a thing that I can go into, even as a non-technical person.’” From there, he quickly secured space-related internships in DC at the National Defense Industrial Association, as well as the US Commerce and State departments.
Helping hand: Kelly landed at Deloitte in 2024, not too long after wrapping up his degree with a thesis on the Artemis Accords, showing the US-led initiative has extensive international consultations. Today, his job involves highlighting the work the consultancy does in space—for example, Deloitte has nine active satellites, according to Kelly—as well as helping clients understand the opportunities and realities of working in the commercial space sector.
Projects have ranged from lunar communications to space-industry forecasts, with Kelly’s role moving between project management and providing advice, as the situation requires. And when Kelly is not at work, he continues to network—including as project manager for the UN-affiliated Space Generation Advisory Council, a global non-profit for students and young professionals.
“Some people have more experience working in the space sector, but I think I’m just very gung-ho,” Kelly said of his approach at work, and outside. He adds that he loves serving as a “connector” in the industry, because he sees space quickly moving into the mainstream to encompass many different professional backgrounds within it.
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“That’s where I realized we’re stuck at a 1980s standard: still shielding spacecraft with aluminum, and rad-hardened electronics [were] too expensive to build at the scale this economy demands,” Hunain told Payload.
Dallas-based Balerion Space Ventures has surpassed its $200M target for its second fund, the firm announced Thursday. Fund II—which remains open—is more than five times the size of the firm’s debut fund, which came in at just under $40M.
Balerion had closed ~$90M as of May, according to Venture Capital Journal. Cofounder and General Partner Daniel Kleinmann chalked up the momentum since then to portfolio companies hitting milestones and raising up-rounds—which he said resonated with LPs.
The firm is also holding back capital for follow-on rounds. “These are really capital-intensive businesses,” Kleinmann told Payload. “Having the ability to reserve capital to continue supporting these businesses as they hit major technical, commercial, government milestones is really important to us.”
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