Simone Sanders Townsend and I have known each other for more than a decade, tussling over politics and policy when she worked in the White House and I reported on it. And now we're friends and colleagues. And on our new podcast, MS Now Presents Clock It!, we are positioning ourselves at the intersection of culture and politics. Clock It! is where we talk about what we see and hear in the news, so you can start to clock it too. MS Now presents Clock It! Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop Thursdays. Citus Space was born from a company called Craig Technologies Aerospace Solutions. In 2021, it rebranded and was taken public in a traditional IPO. Notable since most space companies at the time were merging with SPACs. Citus is a space and defense tech company, offering everything from satellite and component manufacturing to space-based data platforms to AI services. But founder and CEO Carol Craig says Citus flew largely below the radar. one of the negatives of going IPO and with the investment bankers that we use was that we didn't necessarily have this big following of analysts. And that's that we saw that over the last four years where maybe we were the best kept secret that didn't want to be kept. And so recently, I think because of what's happening with the defense, with the budgets, with the administration, I think all of a sudden we're on everyone's radar and they're recognizing that there's value in this small company. We did things different in that we've been initially self-funded. And then with the shareholders, we built our products ourselves, not on the backs of some government contracts or things like that. It was really investment. So we own the IP. These are our products. This is our satellite constellation. And these are the shareholders own these products. Investors have certainly taken notice. As recently as early December, Citus was a penny stock. Since then, it has surged more than 400%, with a market valuation now in the hundreds of millions of dollars. So still very small, but a marked change for the defense contractor. Why? Well, Citus was one of the contract awardees for the Missile Defense Agency's SHIELD program. It's part of the broader Golden Dome strategy for Homeland Missile Defense. The SHIELD Indefinite Delivery and Definite Quantity Contract ceiling, $151 billion. On this episode, Carol Craig on Golden Dome, tech and policy disruption in space and defense, and what comes next for Cytos Space. I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is Manifest Space. So we are a smartly vertically integrated technology and defense company. And we provide, we have core capabilities that include satellite manufacturing and technology integration. AI products and services, space and defense hardware components, and space-based data. Yeah. And you've recently gotten some pretty high-profile wins, including the fact that you are poised to participate in some of the Golden Dome contracts that we're seeing come out. Let's talk about it. Right. Absolutely. So I've been in defense and space for about 35 years. So I understand it. A lot of this is not unexpected, obviously. And I think with the environment, geopolitical environment, things that are going on. Everyone kind of realizes, you know, this is something that was going to happen and here it is. And yes, we are one of the companies that was selected for the IDIQ, for Golden Dome, for MDA Shield program. And what's a little bit unique, I think, about us is that we have multiple capabilities. So we're very diverse. When we started the company, it was really thinking about technological obsolescence and diversity because space was nascent. It's still a nascent industry and we knew it was going to change. So to put something out there, build something for something very specific, really didn't make sense at the time. So it was be a little bit more broad. And I think that's what is being looked for when you think about Golden Dome and MDA Shield, right? You're looking for companies that have this ability to be flexible, but also have diversity to address a lot of these changing requirements and that changing environment that we're seeing. So we talk about changing requirements and changing environment. What is that going to mean or do we not yet know when it comes to a missile shield and missile defense and this, you know, so-called Golden Dome? I think we don't know yet. I mean, what we do know is that we need to have, I mean, there are things going on that we're not aware of or we are aware of, but maybe aren't as public as we might want them to be maybe. But I think it's going to keep changing. And that's the important piece. We're going to have to react very quickly. And I say we as in more of a global or nationwide we and everyone on these contracts, because it's going to change quickly and we're going to have to adapt, be flexible. We don't know what we don't know, but we need to be prepared for it. So what does Cytospace specifically bring to the table? Well, I think we bring, the diversity is important and it's diversity in a mindset. It's not just about your products and the technologies and that kind of thing. It's really saying, okay, You know I built something we have built something that allows us to address the changing requirements again the changing environment So we bring that ability to rapidly respond to the requirements to whatever the customers might be, and the customers keep changing. So we are talking about geopolitical and defense, but we're also looking at commercial as well. And depending on if administration changes, now you've got different requirements from other commercial customers and things like that. So you need to be able to change and pivot, but pivot in a very positive way. I think that's one thing we bring, very cost efficient. And I did things differently. I've done things differently probably all my life, but especially when it came to business. When we went public, we went public via an IPO. So we did a small race. We did that differently than some of the other companies that went public via SPAC. And we had to remain lean and we had to be lean and we're doing the same thing. We're remaining lean so that we can very quickly pivot to whatever those requirements are. One of the things we've been focused on was, as I mentioned, technological obsolescence, but then also supply chain. Supply chain has been really difficult in the space industry. And a lot of it's because there aren't as many that are in the supply chain, but also you've got some other challenges, again, politically and globally. And so we took a look. And the reason I use the term smart vertical integration is because we really kind of looked at what we already had in place and said, can we fill the gaps in the supply chain? So that's another thing that we bring is the ability to build systems for others that we've built for ourselves. So one of those is our onboard computing, our high performance computing that we have tied to our AI products. Let's talk a little bit about the AI products, especially at a time where there's so much buzz around the promise and potential of something like AI data centers in space. Yeah. Yeah. So my background is engineering. I have several engineering degrees and software engineering. And so I always find it interesting when people talk about AI. Everybody has a different definition or opinion of what AI is. And algorithms are really important. That's really what AI is in my mind. You're looking at really advanced algorithms that can do things that we really hadn't thought of before prior. But the important piece is that those algorithms are useless if you don't have the computing power behind it. And that's really where I think the on-orbit data centers come in or any of this edge computing, like what we have on our satellites is important because you've got to be able to process large amounts of data, whether it's a large image, like hyperspectral images are very large, right? So you want to be able to very quickly process that, get that intelligent, actionable intelligence down to your customers, or it's just having that quick response and providing whatever it is that your customers are looking for on orbit. Again, the on-orbit processing and the data centers really needs to have that high computing power or it's going to be useless. And when we talk about critical infrastructure in space, and I guess, how do you think about all of this, especially given the fact that we're coming off of a crazy week with geopolitical tensions ratcheting up? Well, I mean, it's important. The infrastructure in space is really important. And that's a lot of like what we did with our company. It's not a build it and they will come concept. It's more of, you know, build for the future. Make sure you've got that infrastructure in place. You can't have just one and not the other. For example, like satellites are important. Lunar satellites are important. We talk a lot about human lander, the moon, getting infrastructure on the moon, but you're going to need the comms and you're going to need the other types of sensors and imagery from satellites to support that. So you really have to look at the full big picture and you can't just do it kind of onesie twosies. It's got to be completely planned out. And that's a lot of what we've looked at. And I think that's what's going to happen. You'll see more of that. I also think it's going to speed up very quickly. It feels like it's taken a really long time to get where we are. And I think maybe in the past it's been the case, but that's not going to happen in the future. It's going to go rapid. Yeah. I mean, I just point to, since we're still less than a week from this very sophisticated one for the history books, raid that took place in Venezuela, or even some of what we've seen with tracking some of these, you know, sanctions tanker ships. You think about some of the stuff and some of the intel and some of the missions that have taken place over the past, I don't know, six months, a year even, in other parts of the world, just the role that space, space infrastructure, data from space is playing in all of this to make it all possible. Absolutely. And the other thing that's happening we see is space and defense is coming together. For a while, I feel like people are looking, oh, it's space and it's defense. Well, they're intertwined. It's going to continue to come together and you're not going to have one or the other, as evidenced by what you said. The other thing with the commercial space side of things is that it's allowing us to innovate faster and have much faster rapid response. So that's been really important, I think, and that's what's allowing us to do what we're doing. Pendulum swings, whether it's swinging, because when we started with the large satellites, it was all military. and you couldn't do anything commercial. And then all of a sudden it swings to the other side, and you've got small CubeSats, and you can build these satellites in your garage, and that's great, but reality, the solution is somewhere in between. So it's not the tiny ones, it's not the large, it's not super expensive, super cheap, it really is somewhere in between And I think that what commercial space has allowed you know this maybe dual type of opportunity So you supporting space defense but you also supporting the commercial side Do you think that pendulum has sort of swung to the middle and is getting more balanced now? I do. Sorry to interrupt. But yeah, yeah, I do think that. And again, just using that example of the size of satellites, you know, everyone was all about those smaller satellites and then realized, wait, the functionality isn't there. We need the functionality, whether it's hardware to process a lot of the AI algorithms. We need some redundancy. We don't need a lot of small satellites just floating around there coming down and not having this longer life and sustainability. I see it swinging back to the middle. And that's also related to software definition of some of these satellites. And I think we're understanding better what the applications are. So we're building and planning more accordingly. So I think it is swinging to the middle, and I hope that it'll kind of stay there, but we'll see. Yeah, and it made such a good point about this idea that space and defense are converging right now. I mean, it's been a big week in terms of defense changes, a big couple of months, really, in terms of defense changes from a policy perspective. And we've got this executive order this week. You also have the president floating a massive, massive possible proposed increase to the defense budget overall, looking to fiscal 2027. And we continue to see acquisition reform and a real push from the administration to see more competition come into the marketplace and compete for some of these contracts. What does it mean for Cytospace? And I guess, how does it speak to this more commercialized role to get things more quickly? Well, I think what it really means for CITUS is that we have an opportunity to grow. We have an opportunity to be able to do the things that we've been wanting to do and much faster and participate in it. So it is important. Like I mentioned, 35 years in space and defense, CITUS space has been around for a decade and a half. We know government contracting. It has been slow going a lot of times. And so this is an opportunity to really accelerate what we've been doing. 2026 is going to be a great year. I mean, there's no question for everybody, I believe, in space and defense industry because of the things you just mentioned, a lot of the executive order and the focus. The focus on the importance and also having supply chain, going back to that piece of it, that the ability to have more companies in that supply chain, all doing different things, but being able to focus on the overall picture and get where we need to go. So, again, it's a positive for sure for Cytospace and other space and defense providers. What do you think all this does to the supply chain overall? Do you think you see more investment come in and it just becomes more robust? I hear a lot of officials both, you know, on the defense side and in the Pentagon, but then also throughout this administration, for example, here in the U.S., talking about this idea that it's not just a defense industrial base. It's a whole American industrial base. And it just seems like it's a much like you talk about something like reindustrialization, for example. The fence is almost ground zero, but it's a bigger, broader strategy. Right. Right. No, I do think I think it's a positive for it. I think it's going to make it a more robust supply chain. I think we needed that. And we've had the challenges over the last few years, whether it's covid. And a lot of times people say that's the reason for the supply chain issues. I mean, I think there are multiple reasons for that. But all it's going to do is improve that and improve that position. So I look at it as a positive when it comes to the supply chain, and I'm hoping that we'll see that as we go forward. It is interesting. Another pendulum that you see swing is this whole concept of the vertical integration. And, OK, people moving back to being vertically integrated because the supply chain was so difficult to deal with or is it going back? And I think there's a little bit of that happening that goes back to the smart vertical integration. I think you'll see more companies really, truly recognizing that there are some things that make better sense to build in-house. So that will and then if you can build those in-house and then also be able to provide that for customers. Now you've kind of you've got the best of both worlds. And I think that will help the supply chain as well. So in light of that for Cytospace, what does that mean in terms of the opportunities, both commercially and government wise, defense wise? It's a huge opportunity for us. One of the things that we've done is we've designed our products, whether it's satellites or computers and everything we've done with the concept of all domain. So it isn't just about space. It isn't just about defense. You're looking at sea, land, air, space, fiber as well. And it really makes sense to design for all of those. So one of the products I mentioned, our onboard computer, there's Space VPX, and then there's VPX for military, SOSOMOSA, different types of standards. And what we did is we looked at it and built for both. And I think that's the important thing for us also is that what we've built and who we are is applicable to all domains. And I think there more and more of those companies that are looking at it like that that it not just in this one area in this one industry Instead you really should design more broadly for all of it I want to go back to something you said earlier and that the fact that you done things differently because you did take the company public via traditional IPO at a time where many folks were choosing the SPAC route. How has that process been, especially now that investors, particularly, I'd argue retail investors, have really awoken to the opportunity here for Citus to face. I mean, your stock's up 400% in the past month, 400 plus percent in the past month. Sure, sure. So that was an interesting process. It was, we went public in four and a half months, very quick. I was the quarterback. And the benefit there is I've always been a defense contractor. So our books were audited. You know, we always did everything, you know, very structured, a bug board. I mean, it was just, we knew, and I knew because Citus was a spinoff on my first company. So that made it a little bit easier to go public, but we did that. And it was a great opportunity. One of the negatives of going IPO and with the investment bankers that we used was that we didn't necessarily have this big following of analysts. And we saw that over the last four years where maybe we were the best kept secret that didn't want to be kept. And so recently, I think because of what's happening with the defense, with the budgets, with the administration, I think all of a sudden we're on everyone's radar and they're recognizing that there's value in this small company. We did things different in that we've been initially self-funded. And then with the shareholders, we built our products ourselves, not on the backs of some government contracts or things like that. It was really investment. So we own the IP. These are our products. This is our satellite constellation. The shareholders own these products. And I think that's also a positive. And hopefully that's what the street and the shareholders are seeing and why we're valued now where we are. The owning the IP piece of this, it's hard to underscore how important that is and how valuable I would imagine that is. Very much so. And there's pros and cons with the government contracts. And obviously, I'm a huge supporter of that. but when you have a government contract and you're building something for the government, they own the IP as well. And so to be able to build something that you own, and then you can modify it for different customers, and even for, you can sell it to the government, things like that. It's just really important to say, I own this IP. Also by owning the IP and building it yourselves, you're able to very quickly iterate on improvements for those products. And that's really important with technological obsolescence, that whole Moore's law, you know, 18 months, It's like three months now. It just keeps changing. And you don't want to have an entire production line focused on one technology that makes it really slow to move the carrier. You want to be able to respond quickly. And that's another advantage of having it in-house and having your own IP. So what do you want investors and the public to know about Citus that maybe is not well known? What secrets do you want out of the box now? Secrets out of the box. I think, like I just talked about, you know, recognizing that we have built products, we've been successful. Some of the challenges in the industry are related to on-time delivery, successful operation. You know, we launched our satellites. The first one worked. It wasn't a brick. You know, things we've just kind of continued to execute and shown that we can do this. We can be a player. And I think that's what we want them to know is that we do have the ability to take advantage of what's going on right now politically, in the environment, you know, internationally, everything. And I think that we can support in a number of ways. So diversity, very important. Stability, agility. You know, it's good to have them know that we have a lot to offer and we will be. So for 2026, what should we be watching for? What are the milestones? The milestone, when we continue, we have two, we're planning on two more launches this later in the year of this fall. And we've improved on those satellites in that we've designed them to be completely software defined, which means that the sensors that are on orbit can actually be modified for different industries from the ground. So that's really important. So you're not just launching something that's really focused. It's got a fixed focus, fixed industry. So we'll be doing that. We're also rolling out more of our what I call the Fortis VPX products that are applicable to defense, autonomous types of vehicles, applicable to sea, land, air, all of that. So you'll see more of those being rolled out. And again, as we focus on what's happening in space and defense and looking at the stations coming out, we're going to be bidding on more and you'll see more of us. OK, Carol Craig of Side of Space. Great to speak with you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Morgan. That does it for this episode of Manifest Space. Make sure you never miss a launch by following us wherever you get your podcasts and by watching our coverage on Closing Bell Overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan. Inside Wealth's Robert Frank reveals CNBC's exclusive rankings. The Family Office 15. How the top U.S. family offices invest, influence, and redefine wealth. See the full list now on CNBC.com slash Inside Wealth.
