The New Space Economy: Why Commercial Space Matters — and How Everyone Can Be Part of It

Susan Wise: Hi, and welcome to STARS Launch Pod: Space Technology and Research Sciences, brought to you by StarSciences.org — where we connect, collaborate, and accelerate. I’m your host, Susan Wise, and I’m thrilled to have with us today Zaheer Ali from the University of Central Florida — yay! A respected expert on space technology and policy, and an agile leader and technologist.

He is now Program Director of Space Commercialization and Strategy, as well as a partner with Space Outcomes LLC, co-founder of Position Incorporated, a partner at New Space Finance, and until recently, Professor of Practice at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, which is part of ASU.

Zaheer, thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast.

Zaheer Ali: Thanks so much for having me. It’s a great way to start the year, and it’s going to be a really exciting year for space.

Susan Wise: It certainly is. You have such an amazing background. I’d like you to expand on that just a bit, if you would — and then I’d love to hear what you’re doing now to further the space industry.

Zaheer Ali: I started my professional career as a research physicist — still recovering from it, as we like to say. Research is a special thing. People who haven’t done research don’t always understand what it means to work on a single question for a decade, not knowing what the result will be, but hoping that if you get it right, it moves the needle for humanity.

I did that for a while, and it turned out I was a better manager than researcher. So I took what I jokingly call the “management lobotomy,” moved into program management, and enabled my brilliant colleagues to innovate and investigate.

I worked on nuclear weapons, nuclear non-proliferation, material science, and quantum science. My personal specialty is building instruments — if it radiates, I can measure it. I also spent about 15,000 hours in a fab lab over time, so I’m a semiconductor engineer of sorts, even though I never planned to be.

I worked heavily in plasma and fusion. Instruments I helped build — three of them — are on the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. That was a lot of fun.

About ten years in, I had an opportunity to move into NASA and transfer that skill set. Apparently, my mom says that in second grade I told my teacher I wanted to be an astronaut. The application process is brutal, and I’m not Johnny Kim — the Marine who’s also a surgeon! I never became an astronaut, but I did get to work for NASA.

I primarily worked on SOFIA — the flying observatory. We cut a 747, put a telescope inside, and flew at night to do infrared astronomy above the water vapor layer. To get the really “sweet” signal, you have to get above the clouds where it’s dark.

I led groups doing data science for aviation and airborne autonomy, worked on AstroBee — the little assistant robots on the ISS — and many other programs. I’m very grateful.

Later I moved into Silicon Valley, working in high-performance computing as an executive. I saw the GPU revolution and even had some inside perspective on OpenAI in those early days.

Along the way, I realized: there are business degrees for everything — hospitality, medical administration, finance — but nobody had created a business degree focused specifically on space. Aerospace programs existed, but they focused heavily on aviation.

By 2016–2017, commercial space had become real. Falcon 9 proved you could build and operate a launch vehicle for a fraction of legacy cost. That 10x cost reduction unlocked commercial space.

Companies like Rocket Lab, Relativity, and Firefly followed. So I proposed a business degree focused on space. Thunderbird launched one and later pivoted toward diplomacy.

The University of Central Florida — founded in 1962 to staff Cape Canaveral — now produces 30% of Florida’s aerospace workforce and over 3% nationally. My mentor Greg Autry encouraged me to come help build the program properly.

Now we’re launching our first cohort — 35 amazing students — and it’s the first true accredited MBA focused on space.

Susan Wise: Was that your “aha” moment?

Zaheer Ali: The real aha moment came when I read about Luxembourg creating a legal structure that allows ownership of resources mined on the Moon.

To me, that signaled a tipping point — a recognition that a lunar economy will exist, and forward-thinking nations want to participate.

We moved from seeing astronauts as heroes on posters — like Neil Armstrong on my wall — to realizing that normal people, across normal professions, can participate in the space economy.

I advise dozens of companies, sit on boards, and help build the ecosystem. The big message: there is now an opportunity for everyone to be part of the space economy.

Susan Wise: And commercialization helps make that possible — especially with funding, right?

Zaheer Ali: Exactly — and that’s only the beginning.

Government funds research. But when those discoveries show promise, industry can invest millions — and eventually create billions — from products that improve lives.

For example, certain crystals grown in microgravity are ten times more effective against specific cancers. In space, crystals grow uniformly because gravity doesn’t distort them. Companies now want to manufacture pharmaceuticals in orbit — because physics makes them better.

That’s government research turning into commercial benefit.

Susan Wise: And it will affect all of us.

Zaheer Ali: It already has. Laptops, solar panels — so much originated from space work. People ask, “Why go to space?” Because going to space makes Earth better.

Susan Wise: What has been one of your biggest challenges?

Zaheer Ali: Space is hard. The environment wants to kill you. There’s no air, extreme cold, everything is difficult.

But another challenge is making space a normalized investment class.

We need everyday investors — pension funds, unions, hedge funds — to view space the way they now view tech. That shift has taken nearly 30 years, and we are about five years away from space being considered mainstream.

Susan Wise: And workforce development matters too.

Zaheer Ali: Yes — every profession will play a role. We’re not just building rockets; we’re building a civilization beyond Earth. Welders, bakers, poets, doctors — we need them all. Humans need meaning, enrichment, creativity — not just survival.

Susan Wise: Any final advice for listeners?

Zaheer Ali: Peter Beck of Rocket Lab once told me: at Rocket Lab, degrees matter — but passion matters more.

Passion for the frontier. Passion to move humanity forward. If you bring passion, there is a place for you in space.

Susan Wise: And that’s your passion project — opening access.

Zaheer Ali: Exactly. I want to help create access so people can become the best versions of themselves through this endeavor.

Susan Wise: Zaheer, thank you so much for sharing your journey. I look forward to talking again.

Zaheer Ali: I’d love to host you at UCF — “Space U.” Come meet my colleagues. Let’s make 2026 great. As Jared Isaacman said — we’re building a base on the Moon. Let’s go.

Susan Wise: Thank you, Zaheer. And thank you all for joining us, where we connect, collaborate, and accelerate. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and subscribe — and until next time, keep looking up.