The Space Economy's Next Chapter
Future Proof: Innovator Speaker Series at Cornell Tech
Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 5:00 to 8:00 PM ET | Cornell Tech, Roosevelt Island, New York
The Future Proof: Innovator Speakers Series returns on Wednesday, October 21st to Cornell Tech in NYC, with a dialogue for founders, professionals, students & researchers curious to understand how to space industry works and what opportunities for builders exist today.
Join us Wednesday, 21-Oct at 5:30pm for “The Space Economy’s Next Chapter,” two fireside conversations with entrepreneurs innovating in today's space industry. Our featured speaker is Rob Meyerson, CEO and Co-Founder of Interlune and former President of Blue Origin, who spent 15 years growing Blue Origin from a ten-person research team into one of the world’s leading spaceflight companies while reporting to Jeff Bezos. Rob is now working to build a business on the Moon.
Rob will share how the industry has changed since the first days of the commercial era, where it stands now, and where it is headed, from low-cost access to space to mining to non-terrestrial production.
We open the event at 5:30pm with Daniel Bar, Co-Founder and CEO of SpaceComputer, an IC3 at Cornell Tech accelerator alum, that is building tamper-proof secure computing in orbit, as he gives his candid learnings on the realities of putting a start-up in orbit. Rob’s fireside will follow and start at 6pm.
Each session is a candid, 30-minute moderated conversation with Neil DeSilva, EIR of IC3 at Cornell Tech.
We will conclude the evening with a light reception.
Agenda
5:00 PM: Doors open
5:30 PM: Panel, How to Put a Start-up in Orbit, with Daniel Bar (CEO, SpaceComputer)
6:00 PM: Fireside chat, The Space Industry Today and Tomorrow, with Rob Meyerson (CEO, Interlune; former President, Blue Origin)
6:30 PM: Reception
Speakers
Rob Meyerson, Co-Founder & CEO, Interlune
Rob Meyerson is one of the architects of the modern commercial space industry. As President of Blue Origin from 2003 to 2018 he built the company from a ten-person research team into a 1,500-person spaceflight enterprise, leading development of the New Shepard suborbital vehicle, the New Glenn orbital rocket and the BE-3 and BE-4 engines. Before Blue Origin he spent twelve years at NASA's Johnson Space Center and led reusable-launch programs at Kistler Aerospace. In 2020 he co-founded Interlune, with Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt among the founding team, to harvest helium-3 from the Moon for quantum computing, national security and energy. Rob serves on the board of Sceye, is a Fellow of the AIAA and a trustee of the Museum of Flight.
Daniel Bar, Co-Founder & CEO, SpaceComputer
Daniel Bar is building an "orbital root of trust": tamper-proof secure computing on satellites, where hardware cannot be physically reached once it is in space. SpaceComputer has raised $10 million from investors including Maven11, Lattice and Primitive Ventures, is a member of NVIDIA Inception, and is preparing its first on-orbit demonstration in 2027. It was part of the inaugural IC3-CBC Accelerator cohort in 2025. A serial founder, Daniel previously founded Bitfwd Capital and began his career in quantum-computing hardware and nanoelectronics research. He is an Edmund Hillary Fellow.
Neil DeSilva, Moderator, Executive-in-Residence, IC3 at Cornell Tech
Neil DeSilva is Executive-in-Residence at IC3 at Cornell Tech, where he works with leading researchers to accelerate the institutional adoption of frontier technologies. A CFO and public company executive, Neil has a 20-year record of leading enterprise transformations and global product innovation, and of operationalizing new technologies in regulated, complex environments while delivering top-decile shareholder returns.
Venue & Getting There
This event will open doors at the Tata Innovation Center at Cornell Tech at 5pm, with the first speaker to start at 530pm. Please check in on the first floor of Tata.
Transportation: Take the M train to the Roosevelt Island Subway Station, or the Roosevelt Island Tram, as the campus is a short walk from either. You can also taxi over to Cornell Tech, using the address of 2 West Loop Road, NY, NY, though you should aware of traffic before proceeding.
Registration
Free, with host approval required. Please tell us a little about yourself when you register so we can plan the evening. Photography and media will be present at the event.