Balerion Senior Associate Aidan Daoussis sits down with Deborah Space founders Betina Reyna and Danna Linn Barnett to discuss satellite collision avoidance. Deborah Space is building an on-prem software platform for satellite operators that prioritizes collision alerts, recommends tailored maneuvers, and supports threat and anomaly detection. The company’s thesis is that as orbital density rises, operators will need faster decision support that uses sensitive mission data without requiring that data to leave the ground segment.
00:00 – Introduction, Betina Reyna joins from Tel Aviv, and the founders describe the company’s name and mission
03:18 – Danna introduces her background in satellite programs and long-standing work in space sustainability
04:36 – Founding story: Deborah Space emerged from a Google and Israeli military space-unit hackathon focused on collision prevention
07:30 – Early product insight: operators receive collision data messages but still lack practical decision support for mitigation
09:02 – Core thesis: the company aims to sit inside the operator’s ground segment and use mission-specific data to generate tailored recommendations
11:05 – The operational problem at scale: fragmented SSA and flight-dynamics workflows will not hold up as active satellites rise toward 100,000
15:01 – Product architecture: Detect, Direct, and Defend for alert prioritization, maneuver guidance, and threat or anomaly detection
18:56 – Competitive landscape: Deborah Space argues existing solutions address pieces of the problem but do not fully integrate the operator perspective
24:03 – Kessler syndrome, debris risk, and why smarter maneuver planning matters even before a cascading debris scenario occurs
30:20 – Go-to-market strategy: on-prem deployment, shadow-mode validation with operators, and early focus on Israel, Europe, Asia, and India
35:46 – What the company wants from investors: strong alignment, strategic guidance, and a lead investor for a roughly $6 million seed round
37:34 – Milestones after funding: team buildout, defense and commercial POCs, product refinement, and early deployments in customer ground systems
41:41 – Revenue model: pricing by satellite per month or by constellation package, with additional tiers across the product stack
43:18 – Dual-use and export-control considerations, including the company’s intent to stay usable across commercial and defense markets
45:27 – Market outlook and closing takeaway: the founders expect broader constellation growth beyond Starlink and position Deborah as a decision layer for orbital infrastructure
