About

Our Vision

Humanity is emerging from the cradle of the Earth, and creating a market of suppliers and users of space products and services, fueled by innovative technologists and entrepreneurs.  A healthy commercial space industry needs entrepreneurial companies that target a wide range of revenue levels.  New entrepreneurial space companies will fill existing and now unimagined economic niches.   The entrepreneurial environment of Silicon Valley can empower the development of such companies in a growing commercial space industry.

Our Mission

The Silicon Valley Space Center integrates the innovative and entrepreneurial practices of Silicon Valley into the burgeoning NewSpace industry.  This includes the Valley’s practices for business acceleration, incubation, and angel level funding.  The SVSC enables entrepreneurial start-up or early-stage companies to commercialize products or service concepts for space, and helps entrepreneurs identify niches in NewSpace markets.  SVSC incorporates the Valley’s richness of technology, business, entrepreneurial finance, and educational leadership.

The SVSC Values:

  • Teams of engineering, business, and scientific pioneers are needed to create successful NewSpace companies.
  • Mentoring and networking opportunities speed the company creation process.
  • Newly developed infrastructure can create new and unimagined markets.
  • NewSpace is characterized by a spirit of entrepreneurship.

Co-founders:

Sean Casey

Dr. Sean Casey is a Senior Scientist with USRA’s SOFIA program since 1997 and has served as the management and technical lead for SOFIA’s science instrument development program, lead for science instrument integration and commissioning, and science liaison for the review of system level requirements for SOFIA’s final operating capability. Dr. Casey’s work has been recognized as an example of NASA’s goal for “more efficient and cost effective methodologies to [instrument] design and construction…”. He is a co-author on over 34 science publications and has a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Chicago and dual MBAs from the Berkeley Haas and Columbia Schools of Business.

Peri Papadopolous

Professor Papadopoilos is the Aerospace Program Coordinator and the Director/Founder of the Center of Excellence for Space Transportation and Exploration at San Jose State University (SJSU). At SJSU, he directs the microsatellite and CubeSat program and laboratory and has established a laboratory in virtual collaborative advanced engineering and another for space transportation and exploration research and studies.  In support of the laboratories, Prof. Papadoilos has developed engineering and high fidelity modeling tools and has also enhanced the aerospace engineering curriculum  with new courses in advanced computational fluid dynamics.  He is the author or co-author of 58 research publications in aerothermodynamics and computational fluid dynamics and has performed de-orbit trajectory, CFD and systems level analysis for the Mars Science Laboratory. He analyzed the hypersonic flow and aerothermodynamic environments about the X-33, X-34, X-38 and XCRV reusable launch vehicles.

Larry Maloney

 

Founding Members:

Ali Luna
Lee Lunsford
Rolando Branly
Marimikel Charrier
Aaron Cohen
Jose Cortez
Bob Feretich
Jeremy Glassenberg
Murad Hamidouche
Jerry Huang
Parker Imrie
Ian Kluft
Rick Kwan
Larissa Noutong
Elle J. Plato
John Pritchard
Balachandar Ramamurthy
Sylvia ramos
Adrian Tymes