sample return missions, and that really helped justify the architecture that we’ve gone with,” he said. “I think it’s very important, when you’re doing something ambitious like this, that you’re not reinventing the wheel on everything, right?”
Taylor declined to get into further specifics about how the Delphi satellite will work or how Lux Aeterna will refurbish the craft between launches. (The design appears to involve the ability to fold the satellite bus structure so that it fits safely behind the heat shield.)
To be sure, he has plenty of experience in the satellite world. In addition to working on Starlink at SpaceX, Taylor also worked on Amazon’s Kuiper satellite program and at space infrastructure startup Loft Orbital.
The plan for Delphi is to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2027, perform a full orbital flight, and then come back down to Earth. Then Lux Aeterna wants to do that all over again to prove out Delphi’s reusability.
From there, Taylor said his team is working on a larger production vehicle that will demonstrate far greater reusability.
Despite decades of spaceflight innovation, Taylor said he believes the industry is still very young, which leaves plenty of opportunity for a company like Lux Aeterna to establish a long-running business.
“It’s not to the maturity level of [computer] chips. It’s not at the maturity level of automotive,” he said. Satellite reusability will help change that. And while Taylor is committed to that cause, he said he’s thrilled about all the things he can’t imagine that will exist in a space-based economy.
“We don’t know what we don’t know is going to come,” he said. “That’s probably the most exciting part.”
