Space Startups Promised The Moon. Then Went Bankrupt

Space SPACs promised to turn early space startups into public-market winners, but many collapsed before proving they had real products or real markets. This episode looks at the space investment boom through Virgin Orbit, Astra, Planet, SPAC redemptions, failed rockets, and the danger of valuing space companies on fantasy revenue projections. It then moves from speculation to coordination: the stag hunt problem in space, NASA’s changing role, Artemis, SLS, Starship, Blue Origin, lunar landers, moon water, and whether the next space economy needs NASA to become a trust builder rather than only a builder of rockets.--Thinking on Paper is a technology podcast about AI, computing, science, and the systems shaping the future.⁠Listen to every podcast⁠Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠Follow us on ⁠X⁠Follow Mark on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Read our ⁠Substack⁠Email: [email protected](00:00) What is a SPAC? (01:30) Why space SPACs failed (03:20) Virgin Orbit & Astra(06:00) SPACs vs Crypto(08:30) The Stag Hunt(11:00) NASA Artemis (13:00) Starship(17:00) SpaceX & Blue Origin (20:00) The Moon Race vs China (22:00) Can NASA survive