Hello again,
As you can tell, I don’t overload your inbox.
It has been a few weeks since Space Symposium, and I owe you an apology for the delay in getting this interview to you. The conversations were rich, and I wanted to do them justice.
The first episode I am releasing is a conversation with Pacôme Révillon, President and CEO of Novaspace, recorded at Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Révillon has a front-row seat to how the world is actually thinking about space — not the talking points, but the strategic calculus behind the decisions and the spending.
“It’s a bit difficult to really describe the entire portfolio of solutions that you will require because ultimately, yes, there will be humans going to the moon, but it will also be a lot about robotics, about automation, about autonomy.” — Pacôme Révillon
Novaspace occupies a rare position in the space industry. It was formed in April 2024 from the merger of Euroconsult — a Paris-headquartered firm with four decades of experience in market intelligence, strategy consulting, and executive summits — and SpaceTec Partners, a Munich and Brussels-based firm with 20 years of management and technology consulting for public institutions including the European Commission and the European Space Agency.
Novaspace’s combined customer base has included the European Commission and the European Space Agency, non-western governments like Oman, prime contractors, New Space companies, and every category of investor. Today the firm serves more than 1,200 clients across 60-plus countries.
In this episode we cover a lot of ground: how the rest of the world received Artemis II; whether the space market is actually maturing; the sovereignty question — which is dominating policy conversations from Berlin to Bangalore; and how Novaspace handles its business, especially if its clients have competing interests.
On sovereignty, Révillon offered one of the clearest definitions I have heard: “Sovereignty is the right level of autonomy or control you want to have in the context as it is — in terms of what you need to do with space for your nation at this point in time.” Boiled down, in a world where supply chains cross national boundaries, it is hard and expensive to develop 100% sovereign space systems.
Those challenges were on vivid display this week. On May 18, European Space Agency Director General Josef Aschbacher published an opinion piece on LinkedIn arguing that Europe has become too dependent on decisions made beyond its control, and that the time has come for Europe to develop its own truly autonomous human spaceflight capability. He challenged ESA members to find the political will to stop talking about developing its own human exploration capabilities and walk-the-walk.
“Political decisions have always fallen short of pursuing full autonomy in human exploration – a hesitation which has had lasting consequences. To reconcile this, we now need the political will to adjust and accelerate the roadmap.” — Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency
Aschbacher pointed to a number of high-level gatherings where ESA members could make consequential political, budgetary, and planning decisions, the first of which is the ESA Council meeting, slated to take place in Paris from June 16 to June 17.
The episode is available here and also on all the major podcast platforms.
SpaceX IPO — The Latest
SpaceX filed its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 20, 2026, targeting a June 11 IPO pricing date and June 12 public trading debut on the Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX. The company is seeking to raise up to $80 billion. The S-1 itself contains no stated valuation. The Wall Street Journal reported a valuation of $1.7 trillion; Bloomberg has reported SpaceX and its advisers have been floating a figure above $2 trillion to prospective investors.
The Wednesday filing consolidates SpaceX with xAI and X, following Musk’s February 2026 acquisition of his own AI company in an all-stock deal that valued xAI at $250 billion. The recast financials show full-year 2025 revenue of $18.674 billion and a net loss of $4.94 billion, driven almost entirely by the AI segment, which burned $6.4 billion from operations on $3.2 billion in revenue.
On Thursday, May 21, SpaceX came within 40 seconds of launching Starship Flight 12 — the debut test flight of the new Starship V3 configuration — before a problem with ground equipment forced a scrub. The countdown stopped when a hydraulic pin holding the launch tower arm failed to retract.
The next attempt is scheduled for today, Friday, May 22, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. The V3 Starship — standing at 124 meters, roughly 39 stories — features next-generation Raptor 3 engines and increased fuel capacity. NASA is counting on Starship to serve as a lunar lander for the Artemis program, and a successful V3 flight is considered a critical milestone for that program.
The IPO itself has drawn scrutiny. The New York Times reported that Musk has required the underwriting banks to purchase Grok subscriptions and that some have begun integrating the chatbot into their IT systems. An investor group has petitioned the SEC to examine conflicts in the filing.
The S-1 confirms Musk will hold 85.1% of total voting power through a dual-class share structure. The filing states directly that he “will be able to control the outcome of matters requiring shareholder approval.” The roadshow begins June 4.
What’s in this episode
As sovereignty becomes national policy across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, the global space economy is reshaping around security, self-reliance, and strategic ambition. Novaspace advises governments and industry across more than 60 countries. Its CEO Pacôme Révillon offers a rare non-American perspective on what is really driving the spending — and what the world made of Artemis II.
Who’s in the episode
Pacôme Révillon — CEO, Novaspace
Reading
“Isaacman: Chinese Taikonauts Likely to Fly Around Moon in 2027” — Marcia Smith, SpacePolicyOnline.com, May 19, 2026
“A Falcon 9 rocket will hit the Moon this summer at seven times the speed of sound” — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, April 29, 2026
“Uh-oh, the International Space Station is leaking again“ — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, May 21, 2026
“ULA confirms successful solid rocket booster test as Vulcan anomaly investigation continues” — Will Robinson-Smith, Spaceflight Now, May 14, 2026
“Lockheed Martin CEO sends strong 2-word message on Middle East” — Mwangi Enos, The Street, April 25, 2026
“Crystals of space and time: A structural phenomenon that may collapse into tiny black holes” — Vienna University of Technology and edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan, Phys.org, May 21, 2026
SpaceX IPO
SpaceX’s IPO prospectus or S-1 on the Securities and Exchange Commission website, May 20, 2026
“SpaceX IPO gives Musk sweeping power and curbs shareholder rights” — Anirban Sen, Ross Kerber and Suzanne McGee, Reuters, May 6, 2026
“Musk asks SpaceX IPO banks to buy Grok AI subscriptions, NYT reports” — Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru, Reuters, April 3, 2026
Ad Astra!
Laura
AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT: This text was produced using automated speech recognition. Technical terminology may contain inaccuracies. This is provided for accessibility and is not a verbatim record. Please refer to audio for the definitive version.
