Today’s Pathfinder episode features Leon Alkalai, former Technical Fellow of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and now the founder of Mandala Space Ventures. Having spent 32 years at JPL, we dive into his leadership roles for the GRAIL mission in 2007, which mapped the Moon's gravitational field and the Insight Lander in 2012, a first of its kind mission aimed at exploring Mars' deep interior. Leon now runs Mandala, a combination of space venture studio meets venture fund.

In addition to all this, Mo and Leon discuss:

The history of NASA JPL
Commercializing JPL technologies
The venture studio approach to space

And much more…

This episode is brought to you by SpiderOak, a US-based software company that builds space cybersecurity products and solutions for civilian, military, and commercial space operations. Learn more at https://spideroak.com/

• Chapters •

00:00 - Intro & SpiderOak

01:20 - Leon's PhD

01:49 - How did Leon end up at JPL

04:08 - Freshly minted PhD. What's next?

07:55 - JPL & NASA

11:51 - Missions at JPL Leon is most proud of

17:34 - Recovering the gravity of the Moon

21:39 - SpiderOak Ad

27:52 - Mandala Space Ventures

32:08 - The venture studio model

35:15 - Most value added to businesses

37:13 - How to view the industry

39:48 - What you look for in a company and what are some red flags?

41:21 - How does Leon build a team

43:59 - Technology that excites Leon

48:42 - A Starship future

• Show notes •

Mandala's website — https://mandalaspaceventures.com/

Leon's socials — https://twitter.com/DrLeonAlkalai

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

• About us •

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers.

Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)

The Venture Studio, with Leon Alkalai (Mandala Space Ventures)

Valley of Depth