Maria Varmazes (5:37)

Yeah, absolutely. So, Colin, from a regulatory perspective, and Matt's kind of teed it up here, what are your tips and tricks for how you can engage stakeholders, getting things to move faster or it seems sometimes challenging to do that.

Colin McLeod (5:55)

Yeah, thanks. So we're working very closely with other regulators around the world at the moment, and iac, the UK led a forum of international regulators who were wanting to look specifically at how we can align or easily to allow joint jurisdictional missions. And I am prioritizing these activities in the UK based on actual missions that are coming forward. So we've got a number of missions which could be orbital, where they're going from the UK or from the US and coming back to a third country, possibly even a fourth country, and launchers who are looking to launch from different, different locations. So there's things that we can do. It is quite difficult when countries have got their own national legislation because you can't simply just say that you're going to copy things across that that just doesn't work. But there are pragmatic and practical things that you can do. So for example, using the expertise within my team on flight safety analysis, they can hopefully support other countries who might not have those capabilities and capacities there. The actual safety around a spaceport is much more domestic because the safety to operate a chemical factory or other hazardous industries is common around the world. But it's the space rocket launch bit which is a bit different. But actually the calculation and the physics and this flight safety analysis is. Can be done across boundaries in an easier way.

Maria Varmazes (7:38)

So in terms of. And we've talked about stakeholders a bit, you know, previously and, you know, sort of knowing your audience, knowing your customer base, but also who's contributing to your output, you know, are there any thoughts you have on supply chain, Colin, that you've seen maybe challenging and, you know, recommendations on how, you know, primes or, you know, companies that are, have significant supply chains can work more effectively? Any thoughts?

Colin McLeod (8:17)

I think supply chain is quite interesting from a space perspective because there are so few standards. Lots of people will push for more standards. We would prefer to. We're willing to use standards, but we don't think we should be mandating them. And the reason I would say that is if you look at the four different launch companies that we have got licensed in the UK and some of the ones that are coming, some of them use complete carbon fiber bodies, others use steel, some use methane, some use RP1, they've got different avionics, some of them build their own, some of them are buying off the shelf. So when you do go to standardization, what you do end up with is you're picking some wonders. And maybe that is one solution, that's one way you can do it. But if you want to have all these new technologies that are coming forward, you don't have standards, but they all have their own supply chains. The other thing that's interesting for most space vehicles compared to aviation is of course that they are tending to manufacture almost everything from scratch themselves. So the supply chain is basically the company, they do most of that activity themselves. But as Mark was talking earlier, the other important bit for supply chains is the supply chain for the spaceport. So having access to good logistics, plenty of places for people to stay, good facilities for the people to work in, access to things like liquid oxygen, fuels, other gases and fabrication and capabilities to do all of those things is really, really important. The worst thing you can have in Many cases also is a really remote spaceport which is great for access to orbit. It's great for safety, but it's not good for safety if you have people working there in cold environments for protection, without proper accommodation and without the ability to get backwards and forwards quite quickly. So you've always going to have a trade off there between what's safe and what is a good way to operate safely.

Maria Varmazes (10:41)

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Maria Varmazes (12:42)

Right. So Colin, you know, bringing it back to Puerto Rico. So they seem to be in a fantastic geography and you know, some, some weather challenges there in terms of hurricanes, but generally, you know, predictable. Just in general, what are some best practices or lessons learned to integrate, you know, spaceport plans with other international partners. So and Matt, you may want to talk about Starlift here, you know, as an allied partnership engagement. How does that configure into all of this? Does it sort of create a strong framework for how Puerto Rico can operate in terms of its launch capabilities and things like that?

Matthew Archer (13:29)

Yeah, I think for me I would, as I sort of advised other countries in terms of when they're considering launch or space ports is really think about the end to end chain. So it's about understanding how you want to accommodate your regulatory environment to suit the kind of customer path that you see. So right from spaceport right through to your potential launch vehicles and customers, what's it launching? Where is it launching it? What are some of the challenges with that? So are we talking about, I'm guessing talking largely equatorial launches? Where else might you have particular safety concerns in terms of marine environment? You've obviously mentioned the weather. Like it won't surprise you that Scotland has its own weather challenges at times and as does every spaceport in the world. Right. They all have some kind of challenge that's not unique, but it's understanding what drives the model to make it work and how you then adopt your regulatory framework to, for me, make sure that business model stacks up. But equally in working with other regulators, as Colin does, it's starting to say, well, how can we learn about the best bits that match that our intent as a nation? How do we align and create potential mutual recognition schemes? Or how do we start to make it easier on providers to reduce the barriers of coming to operate from a particular spaceport? And that's going to be particularly keen in some of the conversations we'll have around Starlift is customers of launches generally say, I just want to get to this place or I want to get it on orbit cheaply. Your then discussion is, well, who can do that well and reliably, which is part of the challenge of building a launch capability. Where it launches from is about access to certain orbits and that's where you want to have that and your regulatory framework underpins that and whether it makes it harder or not for those providers. So that's the bit you need to get right is really think through your end to end journey and yeah, build on the experience of people like Colin and others. They can absolutely support kind of allies to think through those challenges.

Maria Varmazes (15:35)

And so what I think I'm hearing both of you say is that in addition to the regulatory and policy pieces, the technology pieces which people always think about, it's really critical to understand your stakeholder base, you know, who you're serving, who your customers are, et cetera. So thank you both so much. This was a terrific discussion. We are so excited about everything the UK and us are doing together because it's critically important. So thank you so much.

Matthew Archer (16:00)

Thank you.

Colin McLeod (16:01)

Thank you.

Maria Varmazes (16:12)

That's T minus Deep Space brought to you by N2K CyberWire. We would love to know what you think of our podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like this show, please share a rating and review in your podcast app, or you can send an email to space2k.com we are proud that N2K Cyberwire is part of the daily routine of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector. From the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies, N2K helps space and cybersecurity professionals grow, learn and stay informed. As the nexus for discovery and connection, we bring you the people, the technology and the ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn how@n2k.com N2K's senior producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Ivan. Peter Kilpe is our publisher and I am T minus host Maria Varmazes. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next time.

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