When Dhruv Jain transferred to a new school, he joined the astronomy club on a whim. Soon, he was chasing meteor showers and tracking the transit of Venus—and now, more than a decade later, he’s built a career helping space companies track objects in orbit.
Star struck: After studying astrodynamics at Purdue University, Jain landed a job as an astrodynamics engineer at Kayhan Space, where he’s able to combine his love of both astronomy and engineering to help grow the company’s catalog of objects on-orbit.
His role is multidisciplinary, combining responsibilities in operations, R&D, and business development. In one job, he can help satellite operators avoid collision risks on orbit, increase Kayhan’s capabilities to cover objects from GEO to VLEO, and work with new customers to expand Kayhan’s footprint.
He was also an instrumental force in Kayhan’s effort to open a new office in India, extending the company’s customer base to the international community, and allowing Kayhan to maintain a 24/7 watch on the night sky.
Down periscope: As an Indian citizen, Jain’s pathway to Kayhan was anything but guaranteed. As a result, he’s working to help other foreign nationals secure US space careers of their own.
Together with the International Students and Professionals in Aerospace and The Asian Aerospace and Aviation Organization, Jain helped develop a 20-page guidebook for international students seeking US careers after graduation. The work involves matching students with industry mentors.
“All the jobs that I have got in my life have been through networking. Even my job at Kayhan,” Jain told Payload. “A lot of it also comes down to networking, and knowing the right person.”
James Shin, K2 Space
“As I begin to understand how much [impact]…things like cellular telecommunications, imaging, climate [research]…have globally—once I started to understand that, I was like, ‘Okay, this is definitely the industry that I want to work in,’” Shin told Payload.
Robert Ihnatisin, Orbital Matter
As an expert in 3D printing for terrestrial applications, Robert Ihnatisin was surprised by how slow the in-orbit manufacturing industry was progressing. So, naturally, he started a company to solve the problem himself.
Patrick Miga, Advanced Space
In first grade, Patrick Miga saw a photo of Neptune (snapped by the Voyager 2 spacecraft).. Ever since then, his life has been directed toward space.
Muhammad Hunain, Melagen Labs
“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.”
Keep reading