Welcome to Pathfinder, a new weekly show where Payload Managing Editor Ryan Duffy sits down with the top shot-callers in space. In Pathfinder #fff1, we speak with Michael Suffredini, president and CEO of Axiom Space. 

Axiom is a Houston-based space startup unicorn. Axiom is building a space station, brokering private spaceflight missions with SpaceX, and even has a slot at the International Space Station (ISS) with its name on it. If you can't tell, we love saying the word space. 

Suffredini is one of the world’s foremost authorities on building and operating space stations. He spent three decades at NASA and 10 years as the ISS program manager, before hanging up his space agency cleats and starting Axiom with Kam Ghaffarian. 

In April, Axiom clinched a world, or maybe intergalactic, first. Together with SpaceX, Axiom launched Ax-1, the first all-private mission to the ISS. In our conversation, recorded in early May, Suffredini shares plenty with us on Ax-1, Axiom's business model, his time at NASA, Tom Cruise's LEO movie, in-space manufacturing, and much more. 

Pathfinder's first episode is brought to you by SpiderOak Mission Systems, an industry leader in space cybersecurity. 

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