Transcripts

What You Missed On The Vector Episode 15: Bridging the Gap – Improving Frameworks for International Business Engagement

Written by: Morsiell Dormu

In this insightful episode of The Vector, host Kelli Kedis Ogborn sits down with Rose Croshier, an international relations specialist within the Office of Space Commerce, to explore strategies for fostering international business engagement in the rapidly evolving global space economy. With her expertise in bridging gaps between governments and industries, Croshier shares frameworks and best practices for enabling collaboration, innovation, and sustainable growth in space commerce.

Key Highlights Include:

  • Defining Frameworks for Space Engagement: Croshier describes frameworks as scaffolding that organizes the complex systems underpinning the space economy, from trade and financing to innovation and cultural factors. These frameworks enable governments and industries to collaborate effectively while maintaining clear roles.
  • Normalizing Space in Broader Economic Discussions: The Office of Space Commerce aims to integrate space into existing industries and policy frameworks, ensuring that space is considered alongside other sectors like agriculture and infrastructure, rather than being treated as an isolated domain.
  • Enabling Global Collaboration: With 102 countries now engaged in space activities, Croshier emphasizes the importance of creating inclusive systems that account for differing regulatory policies, cultural approaches to risk, and market structures. She highlights the importance of Track 1.5 diplomacy, which involves both government and industry stakeholders to facilitate collaboration.
  • Reducing Bureaucratic Obstacles: The Office of Space Commerce works to identify and address bureaucratic challenges that hinder space-related business. By fostering transparency, harmonizing regulations, and simplifying market access, the U.S. aims to support global space industry growth.
  • Opportunities in Emerging Markets: Croshier points to innovative models like Nigeria’s broadband initiatives blending satellite and terrestrial technologies. These examples illustrate how local demand can drive scalable and sustainable space applications, creating opportunities for global partnerships.
  • Addressing Regulatory Evolution: Acknowledging the legacy systems that have supported the U.S. space industry, Croshier advocates for adaptable regulations to accommodate emerging technologies like in-space manufacturing and sustainable practices. She highlights ongoing efforts to develop new frameworks for space traffic coordination and commercial activities.
  • Guidance for New Space Entrants: Croshier advises aspiring space players to “solve the non-space problem and work backward,” leveraging existing industries like agriculture or telecommunications to integrate space technologies. This approach can unlock financing, partnerships, and scalable business models.
  • Sustainability and Inclusivity: The episode emphasizes the need for global cooperation to ensure sustainable use of space resources. Croshier highlights the potential of space-based solar power and other technologies to address critical global challenges, fostering economic growth and environmental stewardship.

This episode offers practical insights for governments, industries, and entrepreneurs looking to engage in the global space economy. Croshier’s expertise and actionable advice provide a roadmap for navigating the complexities of international collaboration while unlocking the transformative potential of space commerce.

 

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Episode Transcript:

 

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

Hello everyone and welcome to the Vector where we discuss topics, trends, and insights driving the global space ecosystem. I am your host Kelli Kedis Ogborn, and today is all about fostering better international business engagement and really creating frameworks in thinking, and quite literally for how to navigate and drive in the intertangled world. That is the evolving space economy with its various markets, drivers, facets, and players. Joining me today for this conversation is Rose Croshier, who is an international relations specialist within the Office of Space Commerce. That’s part of the US Department of Commerce in Washington dc. She has a global portfolio where she works to deepen international engagements to promote US space commerce, an international commercial space cooperation more broadly. She is also a non-resident fellow with the Center for Global Development and recently published the Handbook for Space Capability Development, which we will link in the comments and continues her work, enabling low and middle income countries, adoption of space-based technologies. Rose, welcome and thank you so much for joining me.

Rose Croshier:

Hi Kelli. Thrilled to be here. It’s a fantastic topic. Obviously I’m a fan and I’m really looking forward to our conversation today.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

I’m too because you have such an interesting background and broad perspective from the academic side, fellowship side, the government side now, and I think that the way that you approach international engagement in creating these roadmaps for countries and companies I think is going to be really, really helpful and critical. And when we talk about this concept of improving frameworks and really bridging the gap is what it is because as you know, there are so many different countries now that are engaging with space and I think our last count was about 102. There is a lot of excitement, a lot of opportunity, and as we all know that there’s not one path to do it, but the bigger question on people’s minds is it’s not just national anymore and there is a real need to be able to bridge this gap and create these inroads for different countries to collaborate. I want to start off broad and then get a bit more nuanced. And really the first piece I want to throw out is this concept of a framework because space means different things for different people, and one of the things that we always talk about at Space Commerce Institute is space needs to make sense for whoever is engaging it. So I want to throw that level setting vernacular question over is that when you think about frameworks, what does that actually mean?

Rose Croshier:

Love it. Framework is a very flexible diplomatic word that people use in many different ways, but I think it’s useful. It’s a scaffolding essentially because we’re trying to string together these incredibly complex system of systems that it takes for the space economy to flourish both for the US and really for the world. And so if you start talking about those different systems, you’ve got your international trade relationships, you have the financing landscape, you have the innovation ecosystem that you’ve talked about in previous episodes, and of course there’s this cultural factor too, which can play into how any particular community understands and deals with risk and how we build trust. So when we say framework in the government sense, we’re trying to do as much as we can to make a structure so we can be deliberate

And do what we’re best at and then just set the environment for civil and commercial to operate to do what they’re best at. And we start getting the trouble when we cross the lanes necessarily. So that’s what I talk about when I say framework. I think the overall goal really is to methodically balance all of these competing demands so that we can come to a useful solution using a whole raft of tools. So it’s kind of like an organizing entity. There’s a lot of non-space frameworks that have been going on for years, if not decades, that are starting to bring the space element into it, which I think is really a healthy thing. We want, we want our leaders and we’re talking about negotiating trade or diploma, whatever. It’s to be thinking cars and trucks and space. It shouldn’t be an isolated thing because it still is part of our economy like anything else is.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

I love that and I’m actually glad you brought that into the conversation because one of the challenges that I’ve seen is that sometimes when people think about creating a space framework, they think they’re starting from scratch and they’re not because to your point, there are these existing structures, existing industries that have relevant to space are probably being utilized to prop up the capabilities and development of space but don’t actually think they’re part of that ecosystem. And so you even made the point of doing what you’re already good at. And so being able to identify what those are and leverage those in I think will allow people to realize that they’re not really starting from ground zero.

Rose Croshier:

Absolutely. Absolutely. So really we’re just trying to normalize space in our regular work, and I think the Office of Space Commerce is kind of a spokesman for that. When you’re an internal advocate, we’re trying to bring together state and defense and all of the sub organizations really underneath that have a space role, but there’s not necessarily thinking about it in those terms. So trying to organize and focus that type of work. And also, I’ll note that my path coming to this position for a while, I did a lot of program design and management and it was focused more on things like security, maritime security or border security or Ebola, big, big systemic issues. And there were so many components that took to have a strong program or the result you want to get to. And really in my work, I ended up just focusing that skillset on space and that’s where the handbook for Space capability came out of. It was really methodical walkthrough, what does it take to develop a capable capability for an effect that you want? And so I guess I’m basically saying that I agree with you.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

No, well, and the handbook too, as I mentioned, we’re going to link it into the comments, but I do agree that it very much walks people through the process and it sort of demystifies what it means to become part of space, enter space. And I think that kind of practical conversation is really helpful because I’ve said this many times and I’ve probably said this on previous episodes, but part of the problem that space has is that it’s still very much seen in mythical mystic terms, but also people still sometimes talk about it just in statistics and acronyms and not really those kind of fluid insertion points that people can engage with. And I know a lot of the focus of what you do at Office of Space Commerce is also to invite people to the table to do more business and to have these broader engagements, which certainly is a big task because different countries operate in different ways in terms of their frameworks for lack of a better term, regulatory policies, investment structures, culture, all these things that you mentioned. So within your role and within the office, how do you guys approach that? Because the US obviously from a country stature but also a space stature is still very much on the minds of a lot of people that want to come and engage in the US space business. And so what is your methodology around that?

Rose Croshier:

So maybe this is why I am so compatible with this office and in the sense that I’m absolutely interested in practical pragmatic implementation. Yeah, the policy sounds great. What does it actually mean on the ground? Let’s do it. Let’s do it. What is the thing that we have to do that is going to take advantage of whatever? And so really it’s kind the nature of the office space commerce. Our goal is to improve the environment broadly. So we’re bringing together trying to understand problems, trying to understand opportunities. We’re trying to put that in real terms both internally and externally we, and also takes into account this fuzzy aspect. You’re talking about fostering the conditions, the environment, it’s all not so spread out thinly that we don’t have anything measurable but not limited, not too locked into counting components. I mean, we don’t measure our success by how many widgets are sold on any given day.

Another aspect of that is just we’re concerned with our industry’s growth. It’s the advancement of technology and our competitors at home and abroad. Just a lot of the things that are good though for us business is broadly good for global space industry. Having transparent rules and policy and regulations is really helps reduce risk, helps reduce friction, helps us work together and find customers and find partners and find those who have services or goods to provide. So that’s the broad picture. One nuance I have to say is the OEC focuses at the systemic level, whereas our sister organization, the International Trade Administration or ITA, is much more focused on the business to business angle. So they’re always a resource as well, and we work in tandem.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

That’s a helpful caveat and nuance really about who’s who. And when you engage or try to engage these other entities, is it more your office is reaching out or can other countries or companies from other countries engage and what does that process look like?

Rose Croshier:

Sure, sure. So we have a website and there’s literally a link there, talk to us, and we really look at that. And so we invite engagement broadly. So looking at the kind of day-to-day things that we’re doing, we’re trying to understand and remove bureaucratic obstacles. What is the issue that’s holding back or slowing down space related business? And then we do a lot of facilitation work between industry and government. So when we’re having these more, for example, diplomatic frameworks, it’ll be our office that we call it track 1.5 where you have both governments and we invite industry to the table, be it bilateral or multilateral to improve that exchange of information and really inject energy into that government conversation because sometimes it can seem very removed to government entities that aren’t running a business. I mean, it just kind of adds specificity and urgency and I think it’s a really important role that we have to make those kinds of events happen.

We also do a lot of coordination government-wide about space commerce policy issues. One legacy that’s unique to the United States is our space capability and governance really developed organically over many decades. And so our authorities and roles are really scattered across multiple organizations. So that means our office has picked up this kind of old school, ironically switchboard rule role where we’re really kind of pulling these entities together when it makes sense and it’s a topic that’s relevant to what is their slice of that space government’s pie, so to speak. Then broadly with our inter agency partners, that’s the department of state, department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, USGS or the United States Geological Survey and other offices within the Department of Commerce because there’s like 13 of them and the White House, the administration is actually critical. We connect all of these entities together and businesses, and we also do a lot of work to connect them to their foreign counterparts. So there’s a translation effect here because not every country organizes themselves in the same way. And so we’re constantly kind of reminding everyone like, okay, here’s the set that makes the most sense to talk to for this issue.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

You led into my next question, which I really want to set the framework for. The second half of this is this, I don’t want to call it archaic, but we have had, the US in particular has had a very long standing space industry with parameters and pillars and agencies and the way that, and that’s served us well. I mean we obviously have a very booming industry around it, but there also are some challenges and limitations with where the space economy is going and all of these new ways of doing business and new entrants. And one of the things that I always joke sometimes is that it’s no longer your grandfather’s space industry, right? Because it is rapidly evolving. So when you look across this international landscape and of all of these countries that are engaging in space, to your point about even how governments are set up, just the ecosystems are set up differently in terms of established players and new players and money flow, and how do you think about this evolving landscape to try to normalize space so that these commerce channels and business deals can get done with all of these different variables?

Rose Croshier:

Yeah, so I think it’s a lot of, it’s a daily effort to play this connecting role and to advocate internally and externally. So voices like yours for example, and bringing this topic to ears that necessarily necessarily think about it is absolutely important. And so we’re very proactive in the sense of making sure that our senior leadership has this on their agenda when they’re talking about X, Y, Z, maybe agriculture is the main point of their thing, but there’s a space component to it, so we’re just going to pull that together. And really, people tend to default to what they know and space as a newer topic at this level. A lot of people in those mid senior levels just don’t have a space background. And so we have this sort of consistent education role to bring that out. But I think there’s been tremendous progress even in the past five years where it’s now on the agenda not just for necessarily our longest partners and deepest security relationships, but for the global south, for Africa, for South America, continuing with India, these are Japan, South Korea, these are all partners that our conversation is maturing when it comes to space related cooperation and trade, I guess.

So that role is inward looking, the advocacy role to help us policy regulation function better, to encourage the private sector to innovate, to grow, to connect, and then outward trying to encourage the global space sector and trying to find those opportunities, be it at the IAC or other venues or through these track one point fives to help them find the customers the opportunities to collaborate and cooperate. And it’s across that entire spectrum. It doesn’t have to fit one particular mold. And again, that’s why we’re trying to support the environment because we don’t want to dictate to anyone how it actually manifests. We just want progress, innovation and things to work better, more efficiently and to again, let the ecosystem grow.

And then lemme see. I think the other thing I wanted to mention is there is definitely a link between, we talk about what is our role, there’s a link between what the governments do and the growth of a new industry. I mean, there just needs to be some organization, some push that kind of helps a positive feedback loop form that encourages growth in these various sectors. If we’re encouraging growth in the space sector, it’s not going to be just in isolation. It can’t be a means to itself. It has to have a resulting business plan that is the best technical option, that is maybe the most economical solution in the long run or maybe has a lot of these kind of spinoff benefits that are also useful in the eyes of the government. It’s not necessarily that it’s single company sold X dollars is because like, okay, we’ve got this economic activity, it’s brought money into the community, it’s grown our workforce, we’re getting these other and advantages. So that’s why there is every government has an interest in supporting this kind of activity aside from just strictly the profit profit. And it’s same for the us. That’s one of the reasons why we have this sort of mesh network of various institutions that have a connection to technology to encourage it progressing.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

Yeah, I mean it’s definitely a systems is systems benefit approach because sometimes it’s quantifiable and sometimes it’s quantifiable. You can just see the ripple effects and it permeates a lot of things. And I also really liked the point that you made about not dictating the way to do things because I think that that would honestly be a losing battle because every country needs to justify why space is a good investment and it’s going to trickle down and mean different things to their population, to their economies, to their culture. So I like the idea of having, I don’t want to call it a loose framework, but at least it’s some structure to engage with understanding that you’re all marching toward the same goal. And my question is, do we, beyond the differences, I want to focus on a lot of similarities or where some of these collaboration pieces can go. And so understanding that different countries have different structures, are there themes that you’ve seen that have permeated? So maybe it can be barriers of entry, but I’m more interested in what are some of the areas that you’re seeing cropping up a lot, where the main business opportunities exist, where these technologies are ripe and ready for this sort of global collaboration. It’s just the environment needs to be ready for them.

Rose Croshier:

That’s a really interesting question. What pops into my mind is there’s a company in Nigeria that is currently combining cell eight broadband. They’re called zeti. They’re using Utelsat broadband, and then they’re combining it with sort of earth-based wifi and towers to service communities. And they’re doing it in a way that that is resulting in, it’s an actual viable business plan. They’re able to operate to maintain their stuff, which is great. And I really think that there’s room for the US and the newer markets to work together in these combinations to use existing technology plus the advantage of some space-based capabilities that are becoming stronger every day. What can we do with starlink? What can we do with Link? What can we do with these other increasing dynamic options that are going to be added to the suite of possible applications that could be blended in different ways to really localize those capabilities?

And I did a lot of development work in my past, and maybe I sound a little jaded, but I had definitely had my set of projects where the intention was really good, the money was there, but because they didn’t have a business plan, it would die off because they didn’t have a reason or a focus or the manpower of the funding to continue it. So I really like projects that blend the two that have an enduring capability to it. But you asked me, well, what are the things, the patterns I’m seeing that are the differences in countries? And I’d say the market access piece is always a challenge to be balanced in.

If there’s access provided in the US market, there’s access provided in X other market. I think sometimes we have challenges with conflicting regulations that are centered around national security concerns or intellectual property concerns. And so that’s a constant struggle to, people are always concerned about those issues and sovereignty and it was understandable. So the area we have the most opportunity is when there’s an unintentional conflict. We’re both trying to do the same thing, but we’ve interpreted this a little different way and maybe we can align this. And that is kind of often a conversation we have with say, for example European countries trying to make it a little easier for us to be able to work together. Culturally, I think risk is a really interesting area. Risk appetite

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

Is very different countrywide government to investor, I mean across the board.

Rose Croshier:

And that’s one of those areas where you can’t litigate. It takes a conversation. I mean it takes exposure. It takes some cross-pollinization of our working populations to overcome some of that. So yeah, hopefully. Did I get that answer there?

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

You did. And I think that the way you answered it is also kind of the right way. There’s not really one because I think that most people are watching sort of keeping their finger on the pulse of where the ecosystem is evolving. And the biggest piece that you hit on, which I think is the main question, is people, this word of regulation, it’s a scary, scary word for a lot of folks. It doesn’t have to be. But I think that to your point, that has been a barrier, and I’m going to give my assessment and you tell me if I’m correct on this. So going back to the concept of this isn’t your grandfather’s space agency anymore, obviously there are regulations and parameters and things in place that have propped us up and gotten us to how the whole industry is running. I think that where I’m seeing things going, there’s at least a spirit of understanding that things might need to evolve and adapt to allow more of these global collaborations. Am I correct on that?

Rose Croshier:

Yeah, absolutely.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

Which I think can be very encouraging because while as you were talking about these opportunities and trends, I think we’re still discovering what those are. And that’s why I think that these sort of conversations and a lot of the work you’re doing is important because you don’t know what you don’t know unless you’re talking to these countries and companies, then you can really identify what the challenges are and work to correct it.

Rose Croshier:

Right. So looking forward, looking to the future, I imagine many listeners have heard about the White House’s work to develop an interagency proposal, and this legislation would essentially allow the Austin Space Commerce and the FA to fill some gaps in US Guard ability to regulate commercial space activities. And as referenced earlier, we have this old legacy system and it focuses on right now launch reentry radio frequencies or remote sensing and these sort of stark categories. But in space manufacturing with all of these sort new in-space activities that are opening up, there’s a lot of gaps in how we’re dealing with that. And again, this is a problem with how do we talk to other countries if we don’t have aligned categories of things that we’re regulating? You know what I mean? So it’s really a chicken the egg problem when we’re trying to get our own house in order and figure out how we want to think about it. And meanwhile we’re talking with other countries that are kind of doing it in parallel.

So right now we do see India doing all sorts of other things, and the US government in general needs to make sure that we can say yes as much as possible to these commercial activities while still protecting really importantly the sustainability of space. We want to maintain that physical space so that we can continue to rely on satellites to do the infrastructure level services they provide every day and also provide accessible space to be able to experiment and evolve new services and new activities. So this particular legislation depends on Congress. In the meantime, our colleagues, we’re going to be doing what we can to understand these challenges and opportunities and really again, support of this commercial ecosystem.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

I’m really happy to hear that because evolving quickly, and you mentioned sustainability, I was actually just in Saudi Arabia last week at their space debris conference and it was talking about obviously sustainability and what the business models are and tech capabilities, but even just the global consequence if we don’t develop sustainable systems or protect the space that we’re all going to be utilizing collectively much more aggressively and frequently. And we don’t know what we don’t know yet because as these technologies are maturing, as these spaces are getting used in new ways, I think the regulatory environment of what space is going to look like in 15 years is going to be very different. But we need the business models to your point, to set the precedent for the scalability of where it’s actually going to build.

Rose Croshier:

So a little context for you here. So the office space commerce, we absolutely have a regulation role as well. So I’ve been talking about advocacy for most of this conversation. And on the regulation side we have, which focuses on that remote sensing piece piece. So to acknowledge that they’re responsible for licensing regulation overseeing US commercial remote sensing and systems in general, and they’re tasked with really striking a balance between national concerns, national security concerns, and supporting us commercial capabilities, sort of keeping them as least fettered as possible, looking to the future in space regulation. It’s possible that we could take on a piece of that portfolio. So we continue that work there. So this is very close to to our interest in the other reason why we’re super interested in space sustainability because we also have an operational role. So space situational awareness and space traffic coordination used to belong to, well, it still belongs, it’s being transferred from Department of Defense over to Department of Commerce primarily for this civil commercial set.

So we’re literally building the system that’s going to be tracking satellites and supporting safe operations and space. And there’s a pressing need for more accurate and timely SSA data. We need to figure out how to share information, and this will be a global public source. We’re a global public good. It’s going to be just like space track org available to whomever who wants it to provide a baseline level of information to again promote space safety with some room there to allow commercial entities to innovate, to provide bespoke or special services that maybe help satellites be more efficient in their orbits or whatever it’s they’re trying to do that is beyond that very baseline space safety level. So that is our first round of this is called tracks, the traffic coordination system for space. It should go online, but end of this year and then it’ll be an iterative build from that point on. But we’re really excited about it. We’ll not turn off space org is still going to go. We’re just building something that will eventually be the go-to source

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

That can be a bit more agile and iterative as things adapt and evolve. We have a question from someone watching that I want to pull in because when we were talking about some of the themes that you’ve experienced, and it’s an interesting question because you answered it from a business aspect, which you have to, I mean that’s where you’re focused and really a lot of the answers you gave are very much on these areas where there’s a lot of investment, a lot of interest. So looking at utilization of space data, the telecom industry, I mean that’s where the bulk of the money is now the bulk of the investment too because that’s where there’s the quicker ROI looking a bit farther out, are you seeing capability needs that are trending? So where space is going, and we talked about, you and I personally have talked about this, but also on the show the whole LEO sis lunar economy. Are there business ideas that you’re seeing permeating that have some real models and legs that are worth mentioning?

Rose Croshier:

That’s a great question, but my situation is I love all my space industries the same, so it’s hard for me to say exactly or

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

There trends at least that you’re seeing people really leaning into globally.

Rose Croshier:

Commercial space destinations are really fascinating and there’s a lot of activity and a lot of discussion about what is the combination of companies or countries and purpose that those are moving toward. There’s a real flowering of activity in LEO in general, and that’s also part of the reason why it’s so urgent for us to deal with the space sustainability piece because we’re just putting more and more tonnage every year into those orbits and we want to make sure that they can continue to do that. So office space commerce is more interested in making sure that the field is clear necessarily really drilling down on what is going to be the big picture opportunity for commerce broadly. So I would defer to some of my commercial colleagues to really pontificate on which one’s going to be the winning horse on that.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

That’s fair. Yeah. I think also to your point earlier about risk, it’s also going to take, I think that environment, I don’t want to say to level set, but the risk appetite especially for building out some of these larger capabilities and structures that there have been companies that have potentially demonstrated but haven’t had the ability to scale because the investment risk is lower, the development infrastructure risk of what it’s going to look like is just mixed. And so I think that’s probably something that maybe in one to two years is going to look different as well.

Rose Croshier:

Yeah. I kind of want to flip the question back to you, Kelly. I think you’ve probably in a great position to think about that.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

Yeah, I mean, I would say that for me, I think that the IAM, just the whole IAM portfolio within low earth orbit, so the in orbit service assembly and manufacturing is really fascinating to me because

We no doubt we’ll get there, especially with a lot of these commercial LEO destinations, the commercial space stations coming online and just everything that’s going to be enabled to make those operational beyond the launch. But the robotic manufacturing and the in orbit refueling and just all of the infrastructure development, there’s so many companies that are already doing it, it’s just the growing and sustaining. So that’s where I would sort of hedge my bets, just a lot of growing interest. But the challenge is this sustainment piece. It’s not just the debris aspect, but it’s also the technical capabilities to sustain, to manufacture in space. We don’t have the conditions to scale that yet. And so I think for me, it’s having those conversations about how to get people to not think about space as such a risky bet because we can stand on the shoulders of these industries and companies that are already doing and then allow the market to be creative and expand because we already have this established base. It’s that balance between the old state and then the new guard in a way.

Rose Croshier:

Yeah. I’ll take some notes. Kelly,

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

You can quote me. Maybe don’t quote me. I got it. At least that’s what I’m starting to see a little bit. But it’s going to take a lot of regulation and a lot of coordination because that framework is not just one nation, it’s global and it’s integrative. It’s that systems as systems that we talked about, and that is where you and the government and all of these other global entities are really going to be critical because the innovation will get there. It’s just the coordination, growth and scaling.

Rose Croshier:

Yeah, and it’s funny, this conversation is almost feels, it feels like our track 1.5 as we have government industry in the room together and we’re having this conversation and you having those insights and talking about this exact thing of injecting energy into this giving us focus, giving us reason to look into particular possible scenarios and what would be the applications of X, Y, Z policy or regulations. So all of that is a very helpful dialogue and it’s exactly what we hope to continue to do. I’ll say, I say just totally personally speaking, things I’m excited about, I’m pretty passionate about digital inclusivity and being able to really reach both density and just reach it all, particularly the global south. So I think satellites have a real opportunity to be a major game changer of blending technology to achieve some of those goals. That really is a subset of just encouraging countries to blend these space applications driven by local demands to do something new. And so San Francisco isn’t thinking necessarily about Peru’s problems, but I’m sure there’s a young developer there. I’m sure there’s some people there who are trying to tick away at something or see a demand for something that could translate into commercial service that they could develop. And then you’ve got something as well to trade. Then maybe the US would be interested. I mean, you’re joining this market of ideas and this literal market of services and goods, and I think that’s full of potential for cooperation and for trade.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

I completely agree with that because I think the future has to be competitive and collaborative more on the collaborative side because that’s really where we’re going to be able to take the best ideas, the best ways of doing business, combine them for our collective wish, because globally, we all want to achieve the, we all want to access space. I don’t want to say we want to achieve the same thing, not true, but we all want to access space and utilize space in different ways and also not abuse it. And that’s an important concept.

Rose Croshier:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I guess the last part, if you’re talking about game-changing things, I’m personally interested in the space-based solar power and the possibility of that changing our dependence on fossil fuels. And so I follow that. I’m really interested in that and I’m a cheerleader for our industry and building that capability out and making it real for people.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

And there’s actually a lot of really good movement within the Middle East and some other countries that are working on those challenges and being able to your point that you made in the beginning, utilize best practices from other industries that are already doing and just translate them and spin them into space.

Rose Croshier:

Yeah.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

Yeah. So my last question for you while I still have you as a captive audience is I appreciate you mentioning personally what you’re excited about and the trends you’re seeing in the Office of Space Commerce. If you could give a piece of advice to a company in a country that isn’t necessarily engaged in space, what would be the one thing you would tell them?

Rose Croshier:

Solve the non-space problem and work backwards from there? Because it’ll unlock financing, unlock advocates, unlock supporters and collaborators if you put it in terms that are real to those people. So if your space thing has, if it’s applicable in agriculture, then look to the agriculture community to support its development and implement it. And you can bring along the space people with you, but if you stay locked in the space room, people would think it’s a great idea, but I don’t know how far you’re going to get actually into implemented it. If you’re in the space room, the cool sexier things tend, I think get more attention and funding, but the more pragmatic sort of stuff, maybe not as much. So you really have to kind of network and diversify a bit. And if you go to one agriculture community that doesn’t take you seriously, then there’s probably more than one just find they shift over to another set within that piece.

And also if you go into the game and you’re thinking it’s agriculture, but it’s not a good fit in the end, and you can also switch, keep an open mind about figuring, well, where does this thing land? I mean, I’m sure every entrepreneur out there can tell you that it wasn’t necessarily a straight line to go from concept to the resulting piece, and it’s not any different for space. So blending these applications together in new ways, I tend to, I’m a little earth centric bias just because my background, but I can absolutely see this conversation for the new opening world for in space, little nearer term, the LEO space type type of activity.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

I think that’s a perfect way to end it. I think that your earth bound view though is really critical too, because that’s still like 95% of the space economy. And really, if we’re going to make space make sense for people, it also needs to make sense for the populace about why we’re even investing in it. And there needs to be these

Tangible, real world touch points. But I love your solving for non-space and even looking at these adjacent industries because most technology now is dual use. It’s just how you integrate it and utilize it. And I agree with you, they shouldn’t pigeonhole. So that is actually really good advice. Thank you so much. This has been a fantastic conversation, and I think there’s been a lot of really good concept covers, but also hopefully a lot of really good information about how people can engage you and your office and really engage with the US better, and so we can build this framework of global engagement as a community.

Rose Croshier:

I absolutely agree. And I guess the other piece I would note to our various international partners to leverage the US embassy there because it’s sort of like a mini version of US governments who may have representation from commerce, from state, from everything under the sun. There’s a connection to somebody in that embassy, and so they can also be a good resource to figure out, well, where is my counterpart to the thing I want to talk about? And it’s true for government, it’s true for civil, it’s true for commercial. So’s a useful starting point.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

Absolutely. Most often people don’t know that resources exist or who they can even ask the right question to. So thank you for mentioning that.

Rose Croshier:

Yeah, and I have to give credit to civil. So Space Foundation plays an absolute critical role of bringing us together and supporting this conversation. And from the IAC to Space Symposium to the many events we attend to, the panels you Run, and for example, this podcast are super important. So I’m really appreciative that you’re making it happen.

Kelli Kedis Ogborn:

No, thank you. And I mean it works because we have people like you and others that come on and can talk about things because truly my goal, and I know the Space Foundation’s goal is really to just advance the global ecosystem across all facets. And the more that we can demystify and offer products and programs and expertise is really what we’re in it for. So I want to thank you for sharing your time and expertise with us, and I know it’s added a lot of value to me. To our listeners, and to everyone watching, I want to thank you for joining us and remember that there’s a place for everyone in the global space ecosystem, and we’ll see you next time.

 



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Bridging the Gap – Improving Frameworks for International Business Engagement


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