The space economy’s next frontier is in ground infrastructure, Northwood Space CEO says

At Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, Bridgit Mendler emphasized how massive leaps in launch capacity and spacecraft manufacturing are supercharging the space economy.

In the last six years, a surge of satellites in orbit has triggered what Northwood Space Chief Executive Bridgit Mendler called the “infrastructure building era” of space.

Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado on Tuesday, Mendler emphasized how massive leaps in launch capacity and spacecraft manufacturing are supercharging the space economy. Satellites have evolved from isolated scientific missions into large constellations of thousands. And they all require the type of network routing Northwood builds, she said.

Northwood is focused on the ground segment, which Mendler described as the networking system linking Earth and space. Without this infrastructure, she argued, a satellites would be a “really expensive hump of metal up in space.”

“For a long time, the space economy has existed, but it’s been pretty niche,” Mendler said. “The economics are switching. You can see that that is leading to adoption and market share from major parts of the economy like telecom.”

SpaceX’s Starlink, which beams internet access to customers on Earth, currently has more than 10,000 operational satellites in low-Earth orbit, while Amazon’s Project Kuiper is racing to launch its own constellation of satellites. SpaceX and other companies also hope to eventually launch so-called orbital compute data centers. Companies are striking massive multi-billion-dollar deals to deliver AI compute services via space infrastructure.

The burgeoning space industry will get a big boost this week when SpaceX is expected to make its public market debut under the ticker SPCX at a $1.75 trillion valuation. The IPO is expected to raise $75 billion, making it the largest IPO in history, surpassing Saudi Aramco’s 2019 debut.

Northwood recently closed a $100 million Series B funding round led by Washington Harbour Partners and Andreessen Horowitz. The company is betting heavily on Earth-based data infrastructure. Its flagship product, named Portal, uses a network of smaller, individual antennas that work together as a single, powerful system designed to replace traditional parabolic dishes.

Mendler’s philosophy is that space networking should be a shared resource, akin to how cloud infrastructure supports tech startups. By providing this shared layer, Northwood aims to drastically shorten the timeline for new space ventures. What took industry leaders like SpaceX 20 years to build could soon be achieved in five, she said.

A Hollywood story

Mendler is a former Disney Channel actress, appearing in popular TV shows such as Good Luck Charlie and Wizards of Waverly Place. She said she views her Hollywood background as “traditional” for a space CEO because both industries require a high risk tolerance and the ability to beat significant odds.

She also views space-based energy as an exciting use case, noting that there is an “abundance of energy in space” which could help solve terrestrial energy supply concerns.

“Data is the way that you gather value from the space economy,” she said. “So, the more throughput you can get through space, the space economy directly grows.”

More from the 25th annual Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference:

Anthropic’s Boris Cherny, creator of Claude Code, says there are days he manages tens of thousands of AI agents at once

The AI industry spent years chasing bigger models. Now it’s chasing efficiency

‘Not an Allbirds Moment’: Xbox’s new CEO says she is grounding the console in gaming roots not AI

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com