Alum Dylan Taylor Speaks on Manifest Space Podcast

The International Space Station is expected to be retired in 2030, closing a multidecade chapter for humans in space funded by the government. With the next chapter of human space exploration spotlighting the private sector, a slew of companies are developing what they hope will be the space station’s commercial successor. Voyager Space, a holding company concentrated on space infrastructure, is the startup behind Starlab, one of three firms pre-selected by NASA to potentially rise to the challenge.

Dylan Taylor is Voyager's found and CEO, as well as a 1993 alum MSE alum. Taylor and his wife, Gabrielle, established the Patrick R. Taylor Endowed Leadership Chair in Materials Science and Engineering in 2021.

Morgan Brennan sat down with Taylor on the Manifest Space podcast to talk about space stations, his own space flight with Blue Origin and the commercial space sector.

Taylor is a global business leader, commercial astronaut, thought leader and philanthropist. He has been recognized by Harvard University, SpaceNews, the BBC, and others as having played a seminal role in the growth of the private space industry. As an early-stage investor in more than 50 emerging space ventures, including Axiom, Kepler, York, Astrobotic, LeoLabs, Relativity, and Planet, Taylor is widely considered the most active private space investor in the world.

Taylor’s technical background, global business experience and passion for space make him a unique figure within his industry. As a thought leader and futurist, he has written many popular pieces on the future of the space industry for popular audiences. As a speaker, Taylor has keynoted many of the major space conferences around the world.

Taylor is a leading advocate of space manufacturing and the use of in-space resources to further space exploration and settlement. In 2017, he became the first private citizen to manufacture an item in space when the gravity meter he co-designed and commissioned was 3D-printed on the International Space Station. The historic item is now housed in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

Following Taylor’s voyage as part of the crew of Blue Origin’s NewShepard Mission 19, he earned his commercial astronaut wings with the FAA and his universal astronaut wings from the Association of Space Explorers.

Taylor maintains an extensive philanthropic impact on the space industry. In 2017, Taylor founded the nonprofit and social movement, Space for Humanity, which seeks to democratize space exploration and develop solutions to global issues through the scope of human awareness to help solve the world’s most intractable problems. Space for Humanity has successfully sent two citizen astronauts to space via Blue Origin.