Payload 🚀

The CBO just dropped a $1.2T estimate for Golden Dome. In 24 hours, @payloadspace and @tectonicdefense are hosting INSIDE THE DOME (in DC) , the definitive gathering of leaders shaping the future of missile defense architecture. That figure is just one of many critical items on the agenda. And what a lineup you'll hear it from: – General Michael Guetlein, Director, Golden Dome for America – Hon. Michael Duffey, Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment (USW(A&S)) – Mrs. Marcia Holmes, Deputy Director, Golden Dome for America – Major General Mark Piper, Deputy Director of Operations, NORAD – Dr. Bryan Dorland, Principal Director for Space Technology, Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies – Senator Tim Sheehy, Senator (R-MT), U.S. Senate – Congressman Jeff Crank, Congressman (R-CO), U.S. House of Representatives – Congressman Mark Messmer, Congressman (R-IN), U.S. House of Representatives ...and many more. See you tomorrow. 📍 Waldorf Astoria Washington DC 🗓️ Thursday, May 14, 2026

The Hon. Michael Duffey, Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment (USW(A&S)) will be joining “Inside the Dome.” Less than a week until THE Golden Dome event of the year👇 📍 Waldorf Astoria Washington DC 🗓️ Thursday, May 14, 2026

On NYSE Live, @itsmoislam of @payloadspace breaks down @hawkeye360's IPO and the future of signals intelligence. (NYSE: $HAWK)

.@KaranKunjur discusses why SES signed a 30-sat deal with K2 over legacy satellite manufacturers. "They did two Boeing satellites per launch vehicle. And the way they were deploying it was one Falcon 9, two Boeing satellites. And that's the way they did their constellation." "Obviously, you can't do a 100-satellite constellation like that. Ours are $15M per satellite. We stack up to 10 per Falcon 9. Suddenly, a 100-satellite constellation in MEO becomes in range." @itsmoislam

Excited to announce that Golden Dome leadership will be supporting "Inside the Dome" in DC next week! – General Michael Guetlein, Director, Golden Dome for America – Mrs. Marcia Holmes, Deputy Director, Golden Dome for America 8 DAYS! Very limited tix remain 👇 📍 Waldorf Astoria Washington DC 🗓️ Thursday, May 14, 2026 S/O: @payloadspace @tectonicdefense

Founders Fund partner @zebulgar says SpaceX's Cursor acquisition makes a ton of sense for both sides: "I think Cursor was clearly still having breakout quarters, but my understanding was that on a relative basis—relative to Anthropic and some of the other coding models—even though they were growing rapidly, they were still losing market share basically overall because the market was growing so, so rapidly." "I do think being part of a larger entity allows them to have a balance sheet that allows them to have access to the compute, distribution, and sales that allows them to start to catch up." "For SpaceX, I think it now allows them to acquire a team that gives them a much better shot at being able to compete against the core foundation models."

Lots of talk about 100 kW+ satellites. We asked Apex's @IanCinnamon how hard they are to build in practice. "To give you a sense of how hard it is to manufacture these at scale. The solar panels that you need on a 100 kW satellite platform are about the size of a football field." "So think about having a football field indoors for each satellite. You need to lay out, fold up, put it together, stow it, test it, deploy it." "Doing one of those? Very doable, not that hard." "Doing 10 of them? Hard." "Doing 100 per year, 10,000 per year? Exceedingly difficult."

Starcloud's @PhilipJohnston discusses the costs and complexity of building 200kW sats. "The way you get there is by bringing in automotive manufacturing techniques. So long production lines driving the cost down as far as you can." "It's really just solar panels, radiators, a box with a truster, one or two lasers. There's not much more to it than that. None of those components, in first principles, need to be that expensive."

.@_Eric_Romo on what happens when a SpaceX IPO turns a number of Impulse employees into millionaires overnight. "Will there be some engineers who are like, okay, I can finally go retire and be like Thanos and look at the sunset, I'm sure." "But I think there will be others that—we've heard this frankly—that go and think they want to be retired, and they spend a few months, and they're like, you know what? That was actually really fun. Let me come back and do that. And so I think you're going to see that all over the industry." @itsmoislam

As NASA and its partners push harder toward a sustained human presence on the Moon, mobility is mission-critical. Moon buggies with lawn chairs might’ve been good enough for the Apollo-era, but long-term surface operations depend on lunar rovers that can pull their weight (quite literally). payloadspace.com/payload-field-…

Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess was nominated to serve as the next chief of the Space Force, the service announced on Friday. If confirmed, Schiess will be just the third person to serve as the chief of space operations since the Space Force was established in 2019. payloadspace.com/lt-gen-schiess…

Apex's @IanCinnamon on lessons from Terran Orbital's rough ride as a publicly traded sat manufacturer. "The industry loves to talk about giant backlogs from customers that may or may not be funded. Frankly, to cut to the chase here, there's just a lot of bullshit." "There's a lot of trying to trick people. Trying to trick retail investors, and all that. We don't believe in that." "So when I started Apex, the very first pitch I ever gave was I want to create the first satellite bus vendor that people don't hate."

BREAKING: Exclusive interview with @MollySOShea live from @NYSE on THE FUTURE OF MEDIA. We cover: – The origins of Sourcery – Media inflection points – Live streaming & creating authenticity – Sourcery's upcoming IPO @sourceryy x Arkaea Media Group

Varda president and Founders Fund partner @zebulgar hops on the show. Varda revenue: "Last year was about an 80-20 split in terms of the top line. 80% on the federal side. 20% on pharma." We chat: - Varda manufacturing - Investor/entrepreneur - SpaceX IPO - xAI + Cusor + ODCs

What a week, a big thanks to the @NYSE and @payloadspace for hosting a wonderful set of investor events - especially fun to be a part of the Closing Bell ceremony. Some interesting points that came out across the different panels and interviews: 1. The era of “DeepTech requires weathering a decade without revenue” is over - the best companies are quickly ramping up to 9- and 10-figures of annual revenue 2. While the business may be a bit of rocket science, investing in it shouldn’t be - look to companies putting up significant GAAP revenue, with solid margins, and clear defensible technical moats 3. Major initiatives like Golden Dome, combined with a massive surge in demand for capabilities like comms and compute, are going provide significant tailwinds for this industry - we’re still in the early innings 4. Those who can bring these all together - concentrating capital with the players that have unique capabilities suited for the key mission areas - will win

.@YorkSpaceSystem plans to acquire terminal manufacturer @allspaceltd for $355M, according to paperwork filed with the SEC. payloadspace.com/york-space-sys…

Swiss startup @DPhiSpace hosted @liquidai's large language model to analyze an EO image—without first transmitting the image to the ground. payloadspace.com/dphis-second-d…

K2 Space CEO @KaranKunjur joins us to talk mega sats. "When we first started this company, we were like everyone's gone smaller, we're gonna go bigger." We chat: - Gravitas mission - 20 kW --> 100 kW sats - When Starship fairing? - Pez dispenser K2 sats? - SES contract - Will K2 jump into orbital data centers? - Sibling fights @itsmoislam

Industry is planning to largely rely on commercial tech for Golden Dome to make the program affordable and able to scale, according to three industry execs. payloadspace.com/golden-dome-wi…

President Donald Trump has reportedly fired the entire board of the National Science Foundation—and Democrats in Congress are slamming the move as the latest in a string of changes to attack US science and innovation. payloadspace.com/dems-slam-trum…