Former Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson: Will Private Capital Fund Off-World Infrastructure?
On this episode of On Orbit, C5 Capital’s Rob Meyerson explains how private investors define “space infrastructure” both as physical constructs and investment opportunities. Meyerson was one of the first employees of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launch company, serving as its president until 2018. Since leaving the launch industry, he has built a broad space sector investment portfolio. He also serves as the executive producer of ASCEND, a new platform created by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to promote space technology development and infrastructure investment. Meyerson’s roots in the launch sector give him unique insight into how investors view commercial space as a financial opportunity. In this interview, he talks about his early days at Blue Origin, when it was more or less functioning as a commercial space think tank, and how his team created predictions for the long-term future of space. He also outlines the biggest opportunities for private investors in space, but also what worries financiers about the future of private space. He stresses the importance of executives and entrepreneurs creating realistic timelines for the development of their commercial space systems, and how the recent wave of SPACs combined with COVID skewed those timelines. Meyerson also answers questions about whether or not investors will carry the weight in building infrastructure beyond launch services, a product people can see and understand.