“My primary goal was to build the credibility of this domain in India,” he said. “Everyone was thinking, ‘This is a little bit too far-fetched.’”

What do a bird, a shipping container, and a polar bear have in common? They can all be tracked with tech from EarthTraq.

“We just want people to get started so they can focus on the mission, and not all the tinkering,” he added.

Space is now widely viewed as the newest warfighting domain. Ritisha (Risha) Das is working to make sure it can be used for peace as well.

Exercise is essential for astronauts in orbit, since microgravity causes rapid deterioration of bone density and muscle mass. But what if the astronauts could multitask?

Molly MacEachen wants to help companies comply with space-sustainability frameworks, but that market doesn’t exist today—so she’s building it herself.

Max Bhatti’s recipe for success in the space industry is one part luck, and nine parts hustle.

“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.

His introduction to space started with a childhood-science-fair hoverboard. He emailed experts for the math behind it until Robert Boyd—who was working on hybrid airships at Skunk Works—wrote back.

“As a political-science major, I knew I wasn’t going to design rockets or build satellites,” she said. “But I understood I could contribute by shaping the policies that enable those missions.”

Now at In-Q-Tel, Chalphin is tackling one of the most challenging moves yet—moving startup technology into the hands of the government.

Growing up, Tyler Bernstein’s favorite NASA missions—from Mars rovers to Voyager’s interstellar journey—all had one thing in common: They all ran on nuclear batteries.