News & Media
Media Coverage
August 5, 2025
Powering The Space Industrial Economy with Gary Calnan, CEO of CisLunar Industries
What will power the creation of a space industrial economy?
CisLunar Industries argues it's deceptively simple: power processing... and they just closed $1 million in seed funding from ONE Funds to prove it.
Ronny Herrera of Meridian sat down with Co-Founder and CEO Gary Calnan, CFA to capture his journey from financial executive to space founder in Episode 2 of "Space For More", a new series featuring conversations with the people shaping our future.
August 5, 2025
Building The New Silk Road in Space with CisLunar Joe Pawelski
Before we can build a base on the Moon, we need something even more important than astronauts: a supply chain. In this episode of Everything is Logistics, we’re exploring the “New Silk Road in Space” with Joseph Pawelski, CTO and co-founder of CisLunar Industries.
July 11, 2025
Beyond Earth Webinar: You’re Gonna Need Juice For That: Establishing Infrastructure in Space
No mission in space is possible without power and propulsion. This will be no less true in a future where humans are living and thriving in large-scale space habitats. Although spacecraft have historically been sent to space with all of the fuel required for the life of their mission, we are entering an era where it will be possible to fuel spacecraft with propellants that are sourced from in-space materials, such as regolith on the lunar surface or purified metals from defunct spacecraft.
As manufacturing and construction in space also come into practice, resources harvested in space could also serve as raw material for in-space infrastructure such as solar panel stations and launch pads on the Moon and Mars.
July 2, 2025
ARTICLE: Sustainable in-space manufacturing by upcycling metal space debris via a vertically integrated processing paradigm
This study presents a novel approach to upcycling metallic space debris into functional components. This is the first work to investigate the feasibility of using additive friction stir deposition (AFSD), a solid-state additive manufacturing (SSAM) technique, for in-space upcycling of space debris made into feedstock using continuous casting.
March 8, 2025
CEO Gary Calnan Wins Rising Industry Star
Award
Congratulations to our fearless leader, Gary Calnan, CFA , for winning the Rising Industry Star award, presented by Katherine Webster, CEO and Founder of VetsinTech, as part of the Space and Defense Innovator of the Year Awards held during the Space and Defense Innovation Showcase & Reception in Austin during SXSW!
December 26, 2024
CisLunar Industries selected as a finalist for the ColoradoBiz Made in Colorado Awards in their Most Innovative category
Each year, ColoradoBiz brings together the state’s manufacturers to celebrate the people and businesses behind some of the state’s most innovative
products.
They award manufacturers in the following categories:
• Manufacturer with a Mission
• Most Innovative
• Top Food & Beverage
• Emerging Manufacturer
• Best Designed Goods
November 13, 2024
Become a Master of Change in Three Steps
Ready to master change? This week, inspirational leader and a powerhouse in aerospace and energy, Lee Steinke, joins Katherine to discuss her uncommon career switch from the oil and gas sector to aerospace. Hear how, during the chaos of the pandemic, Lee seized the opportunity to pivot industries, using her geological expertise to find surprising similarities between drilling rigs and rocket launch pads. Lee also opens up about the emotional journey from being a senior executive to taking on unpaid volunteer work—and how it ultimately led her to her current roles as COO at Cislunar Industries and partner at ALARA Nova.
October 21, 2024
CisLunar Industries Plots PPU Production - Payload
CisLunar Industries was founded to recycle metals in space by ingesting defunct spacecraft and debris and spitting out usable materials for in-space manufacturing and assembly.
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There’s just one problem: founder and CEO Gary Calnan told Payload he doesn’t see a commercial market for materials on the Moon “for several more years, getting towards the end of the decade.”
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But that’s not stopping the startup from going to market with other tech developed along the way. An advanced Power Processing Unit (PPU) has other applications that are in high demand: Most notably, driving electric thrusters for small spacecraft that the US government is ordering by the hundreds.
October 17, 2024
Signing of The Statement for a
Responsible Space Sector
Taking advantage of ESA Council at Ministerial level in Paris, European actors from the space sector have gathered to sign a Statement for a Responsible Space Sector to express their commitment to contribute to the long-term sustainability of space projects and pave the way to work towards the socially and environmentally responsible management of all activities within the space sector.
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Our Chief of Staff, Ubaldo Ciminieri, was in attendance at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Milan, Italy this year to sign the Statement for a Responsible Space Sector on our behalf.
June 6, 2024
Building Space Foundries that Enable the Next Industrial Revolution – Joe Pawelski
Joe shares valuable insights that you can apply in your own tech business.
“We believe that abundant resources in space are a good way to sustain humanity. We think of ourselves as a sustainable company that’s looking out for the earth.” – Joe Pawelski
April 18, 2024
Tackling the Idea That “Space is Hard” - Episode 36 - Gary Calnan, CEO of CisLunar Industries
Find out how tackling space debris is becoming an economic opportunity with this second appearance from Gary Calnan, the CEO of CisLunar Industries.
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In this episode, Gary shared his perspectives on the Satellite & NewSpace industry, two years on from his original appearance on the podcast. He also explained the geopolitics of today’s space race and shared some future plans from CisLunar Industries.
April 16, 2024
Navigating the cosmos' clutter
Lee Steinke, COO at CisLunar Industries, joins Maria Varmazis to discuss in-space metal processing during Space Symposium.
January 30, 2024
The Logistics of Space Power - The Overt Operator
Space has a vast wealth in metal resources, something that security analysts look to as a primary economic incentive for why powers seek Space presence further into Space than the immediate region of the earth’s orbit. The use of these metals requires complex technologies. This generates a need for processors, refiners, and transport services.
CisLunar Industries is a Space technology company providing the technologies for critical metals processing. The company's various projects have applications that interest the Space defense architecture.
January 28, 2024
Space Tech: A U.S. Space Force Bet That Could Truly Monetize Space Junk… For Real.
The Downlink Podcast with Laura Winter
This week’s episode is about a cunning plan the Space Force has invested in that aims to monetize space junk and large pieces of orbital debris by recycling it in space, for use as thruster fuel and structural beams. Laura Winter speaks with CisLunar Industries’ Co-founders, CEO Gary Calnan and CTO Joe Pawelski; and Neumann Space’s CEO Herve Astier and Chief Scientist Paddy Neumann.
September 22, 2023
The future of space is in our past | Lee Steinke | TEDxBoulder
Embark on a thought-provoking journey with Lee Steinke in this TEDxBoulder talk as she redefines innovation through the lens of time travel. She unveils the profound influence of history on our future. Discover how insights from ancient practices, parallels with Earth and space, and the concept of innovation as a pendulum inspire us to navigate the ever-shifting landscape of progress. Explore the vital role of embracing the past to pioneer the future. Join Lee Steinke on this extraordinary voyage and unlock the secrets to innovation.
May 11, 2023
Building Space Foundries to Enable the Next Industrial Revolution – Tech Leader Talk
This interview is part of the Space Tech Innovation event where Space Tech Leaders share the latest trends and key insights to grow any tech company.
Today I’m talking with Joe Pawelski, who is the Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder of CisLunar Industries.
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Joe and the team at CisLunar Industries are building and operating space foundries™ to enable the next industrial revolution. In particular, he works with in-space metal processing and space debris recycling.
Joe has a passion for figuring out things people say are impossible.
May 2 & May 15, 2023
Two-part Series about the ISS by BBC Future
Part 1: A fiery end? How the ISS will end its life in orbit
Part 2: What will replace the International Space Station?
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In late 2022, a group of companies including CisLunar Industries and Astroscale U.S. Inc. in the US presented an idea to The White House to do just that. That could include melting some of the metal in the truss of the station to be re-used to build new structures or vehicles in space, or even detaching entire modules and repurposing them for other space stations.
"We definitely think there's an opportunity here," says Gary Calnan, CFA, CisLunar's chief executive. "We want to build a salvage yard in space."
April 23, 2023
How an Aussie thruster is putting a rocket up the world of space propulsion
"And the company announced its first sale, and first export, last Thursday, for
the device’s incorporation into a US $1.7 million project led by CisLunar Industries which will see space junk recycled – in space – into the solid metal
fuel used by the Neumann Thruster so that more space junk can then be
collected."
March 20, 2023
Industry sees missed opportunity in deorbiting ISS
“As technology matures, certainly in the next decade we’re going to get to the point where we’re going to be able to reuse and recycle a lot of these materials,” said Ron Lopez, president and managing director of Astroscale U.S., a company working on satellite servicing and debris removal technologies. “Instead of letting it burn up and lose all of that economic value, you take it to a foundry in space” and break it down into raw materials, he said during a Satellite 2023 panel March 16.
That sounds like science fiction, he acknowledged, but he noted Astroscale recently won a Small Business Innovative Research award from the U.S. Space Force, in partnership with CisLunar Industries, to test technologies for repurposing debris into materials like propellant.
May 19, 2022
NASA Funded R&D Projects Aim to Recycle Defunct Satellites, Upper Stages
NASA has decided to continue funding two research and development projects aimed at recycling the enormous amount of waste humanity has deposited in Earth orbit, including spent rocket upper stages, defunct satellites and random pieces of floating debris.
May 19, 2022
First Structural Metal Cutting In Space Demo By Nanoracks + Maxar Will Be Aboard The SpaceX Transporter 5 Rideshare Mission
Cislunar Industries is partnering on a concept to harvest, cut, refine, and reuse metal from existing space junk.
May 19, 2022
$8.5 million Advanced Industries Awards Accelerate 38 Colorado Startups and Researchers
Advances in healthcare technology, data security and intelligence, energy storage and manufacturing all received a boost this week from the Global Business Development division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant Program.
January 22, 2022
Scientists researching ways to recycle space debris
CBS Saturday Morning featured CisLunar Industries and our work to enable space debris recycling for propellant and building materials. They did a great job also highlighting the larger ecosystem of companies that make the in-space resource economy a reality in the near future.
November 23, 2021
Is THIS the key to clearing the skies of space junk? Scientists reveal plans to transform debris in Earth's orbit into ROCKET FUEL and set up a 'gas station in space'
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Scientists have revealed plans to transform debris in Earth's orbit into rocket fuel
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It would involve satellites capturing bits of space junk, storing it and cutting it up
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A space foundry would then melt the debris into metal rods that are used for fuel
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New propulsion system ionises metal and creates thrust to move objects in orbit
November 8, 2021
A Colorado company wants to recycle space junk
A recycling truck in space could solve a growing problem: trash in Earth’s orbit-- junk that threatens everything from GPS satellites to the space station. Last week the U.S. Space Force announced a plan to promote manufacturing and recycling in space. That’s an opportunity for Denver-based CisLunar Industries, which is working on space recycling. CEO Gary Calnan explains the technology and Colorado School of Mines professor Angel Abbud-Madrid weighs in on the potential implications.
May 24, 2021
Twenty-three Small Businesses Selected to Participate in Catalyst Collision Event
In its second virtual Catalyst Collision Event, June 22-25, the Catalyst Accelerator will showcase the dual-use, innovative space technologies of 23 small businesses to government and commercial scouts and will showcase an additional 7 companies in Friday’s Tech Gallery. Sponsored by Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/RV), the four-day pitch event will spark connections and collaborations between startups and small businesses, helping them gain traction in the space sector.
April 7, 2021
NASA Funds 36 Space 3D Printing Projects— Here Are the 15 Most Exciting
Metal Foundries in Space CisLunar Industries is a space technology startup hoping to build metal foundries in space. The key to the technology is the use of debris as an input resource, enabling in-space manufacturing and accelerating space industrialization. As a first-time recipient of NASA’s SBIR grant, CisLunar wants to develop an in-space recycling system that transforms spent components and large structures into repurposed, useful products for on-orbit 3D printing, construction, and refueling. The final output will be a uniform metal rod or ingot as feedstock for use in multiple potential applications, like AM.