The Space Stage at Disrupt 2025 tracks an industry that’s rocketing into reality from ambitious blueprints. From investor roundtables to frontier AI demos, founder deep-dives and in-orbit manufacturing updates, the agenda reads like a roadmap of where commercial space is going next — and who’s building it.
What To Expect From The Space Stage at Disrupt 2025
Look for an honest look at the business of orbit: which capital is moving, how AI is changing mission operations, why space infrastructure is becoming more than rockets and when off-world factories start shipping to Earth. The sessions span from launch, autonomy, sensing and defense to manufacturing — the core stack that would prop up a sustainable space economy.
- What To Expect From The Space Stage at Disrupt 2025
- VC Perspective on Space Investment and Market Signals
- Frontier AI Pitch-Off Highlights for Space Technologies
- A Founder Who Became a Space Builder, Lessons Learned
- Intelligence And Autonomy In The Encircling Way
- Founders Building the Space Stack and Ecosystem
- Orbital Manufacturing Becomes Real for Industry
- Why This Agenda Matters for the Space Industry Now
VC Perspective on Space Investment and Market Signals
Celeste Ford (Stellar Ventures), Chris Morales (Point72 Ventures), and Morgan Beller (NFX) take us into the present cycle: a more disciplined market with sharper milestones but still fertile ground in dual-use tech, data infrastructure, and autonomy. There have been hundreds of billions in private investment tracking through Space Capital since 2014 and the U.S. Space Force budget is hovering around $30 billion — powerful signals to founders building products that sell to customers in both the public and private sector.
The reality of unit economics (rapid reuse, constellation lifetime costs) and underwriting standards that are now heavily weighted towards cash flow and government programs of record will be topics for discussion. BryceTech data shows launch cadence and the number of spacecraft are at record levels in recent years, but investors want to know how downstream revenues scale beyond raw capacity.
Frontier AI Pitch-Off Highlights for Space Technologies
Startups applying artificial intelligence to space-based applications join the 4th Annual TC Sessions: Space on October 6 and 7.
In June of this year, thousands of people from around the world attended our first-ever (virtual) TechCrunch Disrupt. Judges, including Tom Cwik (JPL), Debra Emmons (The Aerospace Corporation), Katelin Holloway (776) and Mandy Vaughn (GXO), have an unparalleled mix of mission heritage and venture pattern recognition.
Teams presenting:
- Little Place Labs
- Magma Space
- Orbital Robotics
- Sandro
- Scout Space
Look forward to edge inference for on-orbit data triage, autonomy for proximity operations and space domain awareness capabilities able to lower operator burdens. It’s a timely lens: “Onboard processing and AI-enabled tasking have emerged as important tools for managing the flood of sensor data, and ultimately reducing latency from minutes to seconds,” according to NASA, ESA, and defense agencies.
A Founder Who Became a Space Builder, Lessons Learned
In this conversation, Baiju Bhatt — co-founder of Robinhood and now the founder/CEO of Aetherflux — breaks down what it actually takes to jump from fintech to deep tech. The discussion revolves around constructing cross-disciplinary groups, understanding how to translate consumer-grade usability to complex space systems and financing hardware timelines that bear no similarity to software sprints. Look for insights about how broader capital markets and retail investor psychology may soon penetrate the space infrastructure side.
Intelligence And Autonomy In The Encircling Way
Joining as mission intelligence drops by for a pragmatic visit are founding members Lucy Hoag (Violet Labs) and Adam Maher (Ursa Space Systems) from The Aerospace Corporation.
Subjects stretch from the “digital thread” that connects requirements to flight software, to AI-driven analytics that transform radar and optical imagery into operational decisions.
As satellite constellations proliferate, the bottleneck is moving from collection of data to interpretation. Ursa’s analytics work offers a glimpse into how insurers, logistics firms and governments harness pixels for indicators, while Violet Labs tackles the integration gap slowing certification and flight readiness. The takeaway: Autonomy and data engineering are now as critical as propulsion.
Founders Building the Space Stack and Ecosystem
Even Rogers (True Anomaly), Max Haot (Vast), Bridgit Mendler (Northwood Space) and Kelly Hennig (Stoke Space) get into what an end-to-end commercial ecosystem looks like there.
Stoke is working toward those kinds of rapid reusability economics that could shrink launch timelines and extend mission flexibility.
Vast is designing commercial stations with artificial gravity in consideration — a gamble that, for long-duration human missions, new architectures will be necessary. True Anomaly’s SA and training emphasis is indicative of an orbital environment coming of age where safety, custody, and responsiveness are table stakes. Northwood Space is reimagining the ground segment, focusing on lower latency and higher throughput for a world where downlink is the limiting reagent.
Orbital Manufacturing Becomes Real for Industry
Will Bruey, the founder and chief executive of Varda Space Industries, on how microgravity manufacturing is moving from test articles to products. Varda’s initial missions include reentry capability and pharmaceutical crystallization in orbit — a proof point for advanced, heat-sensitive materials that thrive in microgravity’s exclusive setting. The near-term in-space manufacturing road map includes specialty fibers, advanced semiconductors and biologics; while regulation and logistics paths continue to clarify based on engagement with the FAA and others.
The economic question is moving from “Can it be made?” to “Do the unit economics work?” — including adding the cost of getting a rideshare, the reentry schedule, and quality improvements over land alternatives.
Why This Agenda Matters for the Space Industry Now
The schedule reflects the shift in space from hype to execution. According to industry trackers, launch rates are picking up, spacecraft lives are getting longer and AI is eating into every aspect of operations. Government demand is solid, commercial demand is maturing and the enabling stack — ground systems, autonomy and manufacturing — are catching up with ambition.
For founders, the takeaway is: design for dual-use from day one, automate what operators today brute-force, and measure progress in delivered capability not just in successful tests. For investors, the filter is crystallizing: Products close loops, not just funding rounds. This year’s Space Stage brings together the builders who are making it clear that the next decade of orbital business will be as much about speed, software and systems integration as it will be about rockets.
