SpinLaunch, the space company that once built a giant centrifuge in the desert just to hurl things at the sky, has now discovered the magic of antennas. Not the flashy kind that talk to Mars rovers. No, these are budget-friendly, passively-steered reflectarrays, perfect for when your orbital ambitions outweigh your funding.

Enter Massimiliano Ladovaz, a man who has seen more satellites than most billionaires see yachts. Previously CTO of OneWeb, then COO of Eutelsat-OneWeb, he helped shepherd a constellation into space using real rockets and actual math. Now he’s in Long Beach, apparently convinced that SpinLaunch has cracked the code on cheap space access, no slingshot really required.