In this episode of The Techne Connect, Chris Jannette, President and CEO of BlackStar Orbital, reveals how his team is building a hypersonic, reusable spacecraft to make space fast, reliable and built to last.
He traces the journey from the US Air Force and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to leading an engineering-led startup executing a Space Force Phase II contract, fresh from wind-tunnel campaigns and heading to drop tests. Chris unpacks BlackStar’s vision for rapid reconstitution of satellites, the ethics and reality of AI and drone warfare, and why systems engineering, rigorous safety and controlled growth matter.
We also dive into BlackStar’s consumer “SpaceBox” payloads flown on Axiom-4, the case for reusable on-orbit assets, and the skills the company is hiring for. Expect a candid take on leadership, collaboration and a call for innovators not to wait for others to build the future.