The Big Data revolution has helped grow Spire’s fleet to 76 in-orbit satellites, and the Californian venture is keen to add more to meet growing demand for its weather forecasting, maritime analytics, and aircraft tracking services. The venture has raised more than US$140m since being founded in 2012 to build one of the world’s largest constellations, and revenues began covering capex in the last 18 months.

We interview CEO Peter Platzer to learn more about the newspace opportunity from a business that was there at its...