Today’s guest is Jordan Noone, the cofounder and founding CTO of Relativity Space. Noone now holds the same titles at Embedded Ventures, a self-described deeptech VC “skunkworks” that Noone runs with cofounder Jenna Bryant. Embedded Ventures has partnered with the US Space Force on R&D, and backed early-stage startups like Slingshot Aerospace and Inversion. Jordan is also the cofounder and CEO of KittyCAD, which aims to reinvent how engineers and companies create hardware products.

On the Relativity front, Jordan helped scale up the company’s additive manufacturing capabilities and hone the rest of the startup’s tech stack. Today, Relativity’s Terran 1 is vertical on the pad in Florida for final tests, before the company conducts an orbital launch attempt this summer. Terran 1 is a 110-foot-tall expendable rocket, and according to Relativity, the largest 3D printed object to exist and to attempt orbital flight. Relativity’s first Terran 1 is 85% 3D printed by mass.

Pathfinder is brought to you by SpiderOak Mission Systems, (http://www.spideroak-ms.com) an industry leader in space cybersecurity. Check out their space whitepaper at spacecyber.com

And now without further ado, here’s a glimpse into the range of discussion topics in today’s episode:

—Background in brief

—Jordan’s rebellious streaks as a student and his take on medieval history

—Heading up USC’s Rocket Propulsion Lab, a finishing school for rocket junkies

—Interning, then working full-time, at SpaceX

—Meeting cofounder Tim Ellis (who was on Pathfinder #fff9)

—Becoming the youngest person to get an FAA license to launch a rocket to space

—Getting accepted into and graduating from Y Combinator (YC W16, to be exact)

—The advantages of 3D printing combustion chambers, engines, and other rocket parts

—All the other aspects of Relativity’s tech stack that differentiate it from other rocket makers

—Why Jordan left Relativity after roughly five years

—Bringing the design and product ethos of Silicon Valley to the world of defense

—Graduating from startup founder to the other side of the boardroom table: VC investor

—Market conditions and what Jordan’s seeing with pricing rounds, startup valuations, etc.

—The downstream effects of space SPACs on future industry financing

—Conflicted cap tables and the geopolitical aspects of venture capital

—Leading KittyCAD, which brings software automation to the hardware world

—Building the Stripe of the hardware world

…and much more! This was a long one, and there’s plenty of other great nuggets and stories buried in the full episode. We’ll leave it to you to discover them yourselves.

Today’s episode is Pathfinder #0010, which means we’ve made it into the double digits. So far, so good. We’ll see you soon at Pathfinder #0100.

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand that also publishes newsletters and hosts events around the US. Subscribe to our industry-leading daily newsletter at payloadspace.com

See you back here next week!