Anatolii Papulov, CEO and co-founder of NewOrbit, joins Ben Gamble on the Astro Ben Podcast to talk about very low Earth orbit (VLEO) and why the space industry is paying attention to it.
He explains why staying in this lowest band of orbit is hard because of atmospheric drag, how NewOrbit got started, and how the company's NEO-1 satellite uses a xenon-powered ion thruster. The conversation also covers testing, applications, the launch timeline and the problem of space debris.
If you follow the new space economy or satellite engineering, this is a close look at a young space company working in a demanding orbit.
What you will hear in this episode
What very low Earth orbit (VLEO) is and why drag makes it hard to stay there
How NewOrbit began
The NEO-1 satellite and its xenon-powered ion thruster
Testing, applications and the launch timeline
Space debris
Guest links: NewOrbit, NewOrbit careers, NewOrbit on LinkedIn and the ESA GOCE mission.
Listen to the episode on Libsyn, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube. More space industry interviews are on the Astro Ben Podcast page and in the full episode archive.
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