Google Said No. SpaceX Said No. He Built It Anyway.

Rama Afullo pitched in-orbit compute to two of the most ambitious companies on the planet. Google passed. SpaceX passed. So he left and built it himself.

Satlyt installs software on satellites already in orbit — no launch, no hardware, no waiting on Starship. Rama walks Richard through the trade study that killed his original plan for physical orbital data centers, why up to 90% of downlinked satellite data is lost or worthless, and what happens when you run a small language model in orbit to find and fix faults on its own.

He also makes the case most space founders won't: chase revenue from day one. The companies that wait for a defense contract to validate them tend not to make it.

Software-defined networking, an Android-style open ecosystem for space, and a domain name bought nine years before there was a company.

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