Building a satellite ‘taxi service’, defending Ukraine & cleaning space junk – Skyrora founder Volodymyr Levykin

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5 • 6 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Volodymyr Levykin, the CEO and founder of Skyrora, talks about building a satellite “taxi service”, how space tech has become an asset in defending Ukraine, the potential of space tourism and the challenges surrounding commercial space travel.

Levykin, a Ukrainian-born tech entrepreneur, spent time working in IT in Silicon Valley before moving to Edinburgh to found rocket company Skyrora. Levykin used private funds to launch the company in 2017, which is building launch services for small satellites. Skyrora became the first company to complete a successful integrated rocket stage test in the UK since the 1970s, and has completed four suborbital rocket launches.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So we believe in Skarora, we want to be the taxi service, basically the vehicle dedicated for the customer,
0:08.0	which means that we are aiming to be ready to launch it whenever the customer wants.
0:16.0	Obviously we had to shut down the office in Ukraine on the first day of war because I cannot put my people under the risk.
0:28.7	I would definitely would not go to Mars. And I would rather go somewhere else in Venice and Italy.
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1:14.8	development teams today.
1:20.8	Hello and welcome to the UKTN podcast, a weekly conversation with founders of some of the UK's
1:27.3	high-growth tech companies.
1:29.3	Each episode will talk through the founder's personal journey, their vision for their business
1:33.7	and their views of the wider tech industry. And joining me, Jane Wakefield, today is
1:38.8	Vlodomir Levickin, who is a space entrepreneur and CEO of British satellite firm Sky Rora. Thank you for talking to
1:47.1	me today, Flodomere. And first up, I want to say that space entrepreneur is such a glamorous
1:52.8	job title. The idea of being a pioneer in this new frontier of space is very exciting. Space always
1:59.3	holds such a fascination for people, doesn't it? So I wanted
2:02.3	to start by just asking, you know, what space meant to you, what it was that inspired you
2:07.2	to get into the space industry. Yeah, thank you. And first of all, I would like to say that I was
	...

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