How space tech companies and startups can stay relevant between launches
Featuring insights from Tereza Pultarova, Shruti Iyengar, Daniel Campbell and TFD’s Matt Neicho
As the space sector grows, winning attention from media and investors is becoming increasingly competitive. With the global space economy hitting $626 billion and projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2034, standing out requires a distinct approach. For commercial space startups building complex technologies such as reusable rockets or satellite platforms, it is easy to assume that a big milestone will automatically make the news. In reality, if your communications strategy does not align with your roadmap, even a major launch can go unnoticed.
So how can space tech companies maximise impact during key milestones while maintaining visibility between launches? The answer relies on ensuring your strategy clearly answers three key questions right from the start: Why does this breakthrough matter, who cares beyond the space sector, and what real-world impact does it have?
To explore this, TFD's Senior Account Manager, Matt Neicho, hosted the first session of TFD’s Space Collective webinar series, sitting down with three industry experts offering perspectives on media, investment and commercial strategy:
- Tereza Pultarova, an award-winning freelance science and space journalist who has reported for Space.com, Engineering & Technology, and the European Space Agency.
- Shruti Iyengar, Investment Director at Future Planet Capital, who leads space-tech investments for the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund and the Blue Ocean Fund.
- Daniel Campbell, a space business development advisor with 20+ years of tech leadership across SpacePharma, ORBITInsure, and Lunasa.
Take a step back and think of the broader story
Space startups often prioritise national media coverage, but this requires a fundamentally different approach than the specialist space trade press. As Tereza explained, mainstream editors rarely build features around a single company or product launch:
“If you really want to go for the big nationals, then it has to be something really big and substantial, like the first successful launch from UK soil, or you need to have a context angle to it, where you're actually not pitching it around just your company, but as part of a bigger story that you are a part of.”
In contrast, specialist trade media, such as Space.com, SpaceNews, or Via Satellite, value your technical milestones. Breaking through their crowded desks means ensuring your story's core angle grabs attention immediately.
As Tereza noted, “If it doesn't grab me immediately, if I don't see why I should open this email, I'm not going to open it because there's just so much stuff coming in.”
Lead with validated milestones rather than early noise
A common mistake for early startups is trying to build press coverage before their technology actually works. For deep tech investors, this lack of substance is a warning sign.
From an investor’s perspective, Shruti emphasised that building excessive hype before achieving concrete milestones sets companies up to fail:
“There's no point really creating that much hype if you've not actually achieved much. You're setting yourself up to fail and not be taken seriously. Once we read the PR piece and start talking to you, we look under the bonnet and go through the DD (due diligence), and then it all kind of starts to fall apart.”
While investors require hard data and completed milestones before taking a startup seriously, the press operates on a different timeline. It is always easier to report on a successful event that has already happened, but journalists are still willing to speak with early-stage companies if the technology is a genuine breakthrough.
In truth, it depends entirely on what else you can offer the writer. If you lack live data, you must provide a deeply interesting perspective, a unique look at a market bottleneck, or a technical angle nobody else is talking about. If you cannot offer that level of insight yet, avoid early publicity. Do not just celebrate a launch. Wait until the technology works in orbit and sends data back to Earth.
Translate technical space engineering into grounded impact
Too often, space communicators and startup leaders focus on how the tech works rather than why it matters. Often this is because they come from highly technical backgrounds. You need an element of human storytelling to capture the hearts and minds of journalists and investors alike.
To create commercial and investment value, your marketing messaging must translate complex engineering into clear, real-world applications. Daniel suggests connecting the technology directly to industries that impact life on Earth:
“At SpacePharma, we have been launching missions quarterly for a decade, so a new launch on its own is no longer a major news hook. But when we shift the story toward healthcare systems and pharmaceuticals, it instantly clicks with reporters. By connecting the tech to topical themes, like helping an overstretched healthcare system improve, the story suddenly becomes relevant to a much wider audience.”
If you are an early-stage space startup and you do not have a concrete application story ready yet, focus on the market bottleneck or regulatory hurdle your foundational technology is built to solve. Explain how your software or hardware layer lays the groundwork for future industries, turning an abstract technical project into an essential stepping stone for the broader market.
Take control of the narrative if a failure occurs
Building things for space involves risk, and mistakes happen. How companies communicate setbacks has a lasting impact on reputation.
Attempting to obscure or downplay issues can damage trust with both journalists and investors. Transparency, on the other hand, will strengthen your credibility. Shruti highlighted a recent launch failure where affected startup founders immediately took to social media to discuss the loss of their payloads:
“Those questions don't come back to bite you later because you're not trying to hide it. You owned the story, controlled the narrative, and went head-on. That was highly commendable, especially for early-stage founders for whom every launch matters...”
Ultimately, owning your setbacks immediately is the best way to protect your credibility for future funding and launches. Working with a specialist space tech PR agency ensures your team is prepared for these high-stakes moments, helping you manage the narrative cleanly when it matters most.
Connect space to Earth
Successful communication in this sector requires moving past empty hype. Space tech companies and startups should no longer treat space as an isolated vertical. Instead, position your business as a critical global utility that solves everyday challenges on Earth.