Before it became known as \u201cRocket City,\u201d Huntsville, Alabama was more of a one stop-sign town. Things changed after World War II, when the U.S. Army recruited German scientists and other leaders to move to the area and develop rocket technology. Over the next 60 years, Huntsville would grow into the state\u2019s second-largest city, and home to a new generation of innovative space companies like Aevum<\/b>.<\/p>\n
The transformation of Rocket City had a profound influence on Aevum CEO Jay Skylus\u2019 upbringing. \u201cThe city created a workforce of engineers that had to think about design and technology in ways they haven\u2019t before,\u201d he explains. \u201cSpace can establish local innovation economies because the task of building in space fundamentally requires outside-of-Earth thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this second of the On Orbit podcast\u2019s two-episode space cities focus (the first covering Quebec, Canada and Telesat\u2019s Lightspeed project), host Jeffrey Hill catches up with Jay Skylus five years after they first met in 2016 \u2014 when Aevum was still a brand-new startup in stealth mode \u2014 to talk about the company\u2019s rapid success as a space logistics and automated launch systems company serving commercial, government, and military customers. Jay explains the role that the city of Huntsville played in that success, and talks about the decision Aevum must make on whether or not to leave the nest as it grows into a national business. <\/p>\n