Robert Lightfoot, vice President,
strategy and business development
with Lockheed Martin Space,
an former associate administrator for NASA.
Welcome on the business brief.
Thanks, Brad miran.
Good to be here Robert with NASA's Rover
perseverance arrival at its historic
mission to find evidence of life on Mars
and Colorado is tremendously important.
Space economy market Forces technology an
imagination are driving a new space age.
Now we're learning about
this new partnership.
Between Lockheed and GM for vehicles,
astronauts will use as we return to the Moon.
Lockheed is clearly a world leader in space.
How's the business going and
what new can you tell us about
your new partnership with GM?
All around their business is incredible.
As you know, spaces become
part of our everyday lives.
I think everyone,
whether they know it or not,
is impacted by space and and
what it does for them daily.
Whether it's the navigation systems
on your phone or your or your car,
whether it's even working just at the ATM
to get your money out of the bank is is,
is that all driven by the space
space and she now is just growing.
Growing incredibly fast were very
fortunate to be here in Denver.
Right in the middle of a lot of
the activity going on around space,
and so I think that sector
is going to continue to grow.
Lockheed Martin is right in
the middle of that.
Going forward.
As you mentioned,
the the opportunity with General Motors
that we announced yesterday as we return,
you know,
the first woman and the next
person of color for the first
person of color to the Moon.
We get a great opportunity to have.
Hopefully the transportation system that
they're going to use to move around the moon.
'cause we're 'cause the the
nation wants to go there to stay.
It's not just to go there and then.
Is it is is we want to set up an
economy there that lunar economy
and and for us to be looking at
a partner like General Motors.
It's very exciting for us for
exciting to be able to help NASA
get their mission done but also
help us work with others that
maybe we're not working on it daily basis.
Historically it is exciting Robert
and looking forward to learning
more about how that will impact
Colorado's economy along the way.
Now Speaking of growth,
an excitement Morgan Stanley's space team.
Estimates that the roughly $350
billion global space industry could
surge to over $1 trillion by 2040,
highlighting drivers like space tourism,
satellite Internet, satellite launch,
even deep space exploration,
to name a few.
What can you tell us about
Colorado's role in space today and
its role in the future of space?
Yeah, so if you think about it,
there's and in recent years we've seen
nearly 1000 startups in the space industry
and seven 700 unique investors between
venture capitalists, private equity,
different corporations, and banks.
So it's just a rapidly growing area,
and when you think about.
That vantage Colorado has.
There's already so many activities here.
We've got the folks in Colorado Springs
that have a lot of involvement,
space, a lot of folks here in Denver,
just Lockheed Martin,
but a lot of other companies in the Denver
area that are all involved in this area.
So when you think about.
That the the the whole of the economy
that's coming toward us, right?
You're you're talking about here.
Lockheed Martin.
We have roughly 10,000 bucks in Colorado,
right?
Working on these missions that
are best with yet to be done.
But if you look at it,
Colorado as a whole in the
aerospace and defense industry.
It's the largest per capita.
Number of people working
in aerospace and defense,
and in this world in this in this industry.
So this is exciting time.
It's only going to grow.
If you look at the different ways
we are doing to attract folks
to come to Colorado constantly,
investing in our infrastructure
to make sure it's a,
it's a place that folks want to come work,
we're sharing that mission.
The mission focus,
which is really important and
that mission focus is what gets
folks really engaged.
You learn that you get to do
something bigger than you, right?
That you'd never be able to do by yourself,
and I think that's the piece
that we think about what what
Colorado has going for it.
It's a very attractive place to be, right?
I mean, it's bottom line folks.
Folks like to come here to visit,
and there are a lot of people
like to come here to live,
and I would like to capitalize on that and
put him to work on our on our program.
So let's let's let's actually build
that back a little bit further.
Robert, in terms of attracting talent,
and you know the purpose.
If you will. For many folks,
and I couldn't agree more that you know,
attracting talent and giving people
a greater purpose is something
that increasingly plays an
important role for every company.
Every industry Colorado
space industry is dependent.
On nurturing the next generation of
Colorado workers to keep the industry
in this state while attracting and
retaining highly capable talent.
Today, how is exactly Lockheed Martin
space and the industry tackling these
challenges in the human capital needs?
Yeah, so do we have a lot
of activities ongoing?
Ryan constantly recruiting from
the universities here in Colorado,
'cause we want to keep that talent here,
right? You look at Colorado
State UC Boulder School of Mines,
Metro, state and even university.
Colorado College brings just to name a few.
And not only are we attracting the
talent that you would think from an
engineering and technical perspective,
it takes like it takes the entire.
It's not just engineering and
technical talent. You need lawyers.
You need financial.
You know this from from,
from what you do on a daily basis.
You need HR professionals,
need communications professionals.
You need all that in place.
And so are our main focus is make sure
we're an attractive place to work with.
Great place to work,
we stick to our core themes of respect.
Others perform with excellence
and do what's right.
It's that simple.
And that,
and I think that those simple
monikers really help us to attract
the right people to come here
and to stay here in the state.
Because we're we are producing
a lot of engineers here and in
state. You know, I actually had.
Chancellor Tony Frank from Colorado
State University on this same segment
just a few weeks back, Robert.
So it's great to see it kind of come
full circle with the work you in
the field if you will are doing at
Lockheed Martin space and he in the
academic world is doing to help provide
those partnerships are training the
talent of both today in tomorrow.
Lastly, Robert Colorado is
a small business state.
Increasingly you are working with
small businesses and startups
as new space interests.
This is really exciting to hear
because I'm a believer that we have
to support our small businesses.
Can you tell us more about the
work you're doing there and why?
Let you know one of the things that
we've learned is that a couple of things.
There's a lot of folks that are
investing in small businesses,
not just us, and we like to leverage
that investment to help us get our
missions done and and oftentimes.
Small businesses are frankly there.
They can be. They can be a little more agile.
So we like to go to the the folks
would like to help them be successful.
That's one of our main things is
if we're going to partner with you
were also to help you be successful.
Couple of examples is tieback.
It's a small small satellite bus
manufacturer that we've been
partnered with to do some of the
some of the issues we need to do
for the space development agency.
Could we have done those
small satellite buses?
Of course,
why not partner with somebody that's
in town here and leverage what
they what they've already done?
ABL,
which is out in California or launch company.
It's about to do their first launch.
We partnered with them as well to
provide low cost launch for us when we
need to do technology demonstrations.
Maybe not have to go to the to
the large launch until we're
really into the true programmer
record during technology demos.
We can do those on those kind of activities.
So our goal here is to.
To leverage the capability,
especially here in Colorado, around us that.
Let's just get these missions done and
help them become part of this economy too,
because if everybody's this is the
old rising tide floats all boats,
I know that right statement,
but it's really true if we can
keep the small businesses engaged
with us and so many others here.
If you look at what we did this
during the pandemic Lockheed Martin
we've provided to our suppliers.
As much financial assistance and
protective equipment assistance that
we could keep them whole and keep them
safe during this during this pandemic.
That's what we do.
We try to make it be a true
partnership with the companies
around here. Robert Lightfoot
with Lockheed Martin space.
Thanks for joining us. Thanks Ryan.