Jeff Bezos wants to build permanent outposts on the Moon and colonize space. Richard Branson wants to make spaceflight as common as air travel. Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars to make humanity multi-planetary.
IBX’s Kam Ghaffarian wants to go even further: the stars.
“There’s this common denominator: combining altruism, doing something useful and good, and combining it with capitalism to have a positive impact,” he told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. “IBX’s vision is to protect our home, our planet, and then find new homes and stars and all that entails. So, on the space side, if we say that the ultimate destiny of humanity is interstellar travel, and going to the stars, then we have to take many intermediate steps to get there.”
This might seem far-fetched if it weren’t for his track record. Ghaffarian was instrumental in the advent of the new space economy, having co-founded and invested in a range of commercial space companies.
Listed on the stock exchange Intuitive machinesof which Ghaffarian is co-founder and executive chairman, recently made history when its Odysseus spacecraft successfully landed on the moon, becoming the first commercial lander to do so.
Ghaffarian is also co-founder and president of Axiom Space, which now regularly sends private astronauts on commercial missions to the International Space Station – the first company authorized to connect modules and provide full missions to the ISS – in the framework of its construction work. its own space station.
With Quantum Space, of which he is also executive chairman, the focus is on deep space commerce and communication via a satellite highway extending from Earth’s orbit to the Moon and beyond; X-Energy, which he founded, has developed operational nuclear reactors that it says are “designed to be intrinsically safe”, as well as nuclear propulsion capabilities.
His family office, IBX (which stands for “Imagine, Believe, Execute”) is at the center of this space exploration constellation.
“We have to do all the steps in between. I’m with Elon (Musk) and Jeff (Bezos), both my dear friends, to be able to do LEO (low Earth orbit) first, to be able to go to the Moon and Mars, because we have to do them before we can go into interstellar space,” Ghaffarian explained on CNBC’s Manifest Space podcast.
Follow and listen to CNBC Podcast “Manifesto Space”hosted by Morgan Brennan, wherever you get your podcasts.
Unlike other high-profile billionaires who create commercial space companies, Ghaffarian made his fortune from the space industry and, rather than focusing on access to space, he is taking advantage of falling costs to develop infrastructure and commercial activities in space.
The Iranian-born entrepreneur, who emigrated to the United States about four and a half decades ago, co-founded a government services company called Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies that became one of NASA’s leading contractors before KBR does not acquire it in 2018.
“If you build a fantastic company and develop incredible technologies, but no one wants to buy it, or there’s no business case, then you won’t have any difference,” Ghaffarian said. “How do you create a business model where you are determined, where you make a difference, but which can also deliver a massive return to investors?”
Ghaffarian estimates that the space economy will be worth billions of dollars – and sooner than many think. He sees technological advances in artificial intelligence and quantum computing as crucial to unlocking the full potential of space.
He said pharmaceutical research and industrial manufacturing based on microgravity, propulsion and sustainable energy sources, as well as lunar infrastructure construction will be among the most demanded capabilities and services in the coming years.
“It’s normal that people don’t really appreciate it. …. When did people appreciate the AI revolution – 10 years ago? Not really, right? And all of that suddenly we now have this herd mentality that everyone is getting into,” said Ghaffarian, who also cited the early days of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, You’re here and SpaceX, and even air transport, as models for the space world. “I think we’re just at the beginning of this space exploration and space economy ecosystem, and it’s still not there, but I believe it’s taking off and will grow quickly, and I truly believe that they” I underestimate the size of the market. »
As investors realize this, the space billionaire’s plans will continue to reach for the stars.
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