FORTUNE OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2021 107off the ground, so to speak, still takes
time and money. To get there, Huby
is trying to generate more immediate
revenue by licensing software she’s
developed for her own machines to
other companies developing space-
based operations.
In addition to running her own
startup, Huby, like Johnson, now
invests in other women’s companies.
She also helped start a nonprofit
organization called the Karman Proj-
ect, which runs a fellowship program
for space entrepreneurs; roughly half
of its fellows are female.
I can see why Huby and Johnson
get along so well: Huby, too, sends
me her “list,” and a furry of introduc-
tory emails soon flood my inbox.
There’s Neha Satak, the Banga-
lore-based cofounder and CEO of
Astrome Technologies, which Huby
invested in. It’s Satak’s third space
startup—she’s also worked on “as-
teroid deflection” technology, among
other projects. Astrome’s aim is
simple but ambitious: to utilize both
terrestrial and satellite communica-
tion to deliver more bandwidth at a
cheaper cost. Part of the secret sauce,
says Satak, involves a combination of
both hardware and software tweaks
to existing satellites. It’s deep tech,
involving a lot of engineering tal-
ent—which is why Satak, herself a
Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, hasbeen at it for more than six years. It’s
proved to be lonely work sometimes.
“I can tell you that in India specifi-
cally, I was probably the only entre-
preneur in the ‘New Space’ industry
who was female,” Satak says.
Next comes Barbara Belvisi, who is
building an inflatable “biopod” that
could someday sustain human life
on the Moon or even Mars. (Huby
is an investor, Johnson an adviser.)
The 60-square-meter, environmen-
tally controlled habitat designed for
raising crops is being developed in a
warehouse on the outskirts of Paris.
I also meet Lynette Tan, another
entrepreneur who runs an incuba-
tor for space startups, as well as aAtomos CEO Vanessa Clark is developing “tugboats for space” capable of repositioning satellites in orbit.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID WILLIAMS