Founder and CEO Of Capella Space, Payam Banazadeh

Payam Banazadeh is the CEO and founder of Capella Space, a Silicon Valley startup that is creating the world’s biggest commercial constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites to deliver hourly monitoring services everywhere on the planet.

Payam graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Texas and has a business/management degree from Stanford University. Prior to founding Capella Space, Payam worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as a project manager and flight systems engineer, winning the NASA Mariner Award, NASA Discovery Award, and NASA Formulation Award.

Payam established Capella Space in 2016 with the goal of enabling a deeper understanding of our planet in new and compelling ways. The company identified an opportunity to monitor the Earth using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), including the 75 percent that is either shrouded by clouds or blanketed in darkness at night.

Capella Space launched the first commercial SAR satellite in the United States, “Denali,” in 2018, as part of its construction of a constellation capable of 24/7 all-weather monitoring of the world. The business launched “Sequoia” in 2020, demonstrating that the US could create high-quality commercial SAR imagery in a tenth of the time and cost of established SAR satellite producers.

Today, the company is developing the next generation of SAR sensors in order to create a constellation that will aid in commerce, conservation, and security decisions on the planet. Capella was the first firm in the United States to launch and operate a commercial SAR mission, and it provides the highest-resolution pictures available (50cm x 50cm). Capella’s innovative satellites work in tandem with a market-leading cloud infrastructure to provide global insights to Defense & Intelligence, government, and commercial customers.

Payam has been named to the Forbes “30 under 30” list, and Capella has been named one of the top 25 disruptive firms in the world by the New York Times, Bloomberg, and most recently Inc magazine. He is a proponent of spreading awareness about the ephemeral nature of life on Earth, as well as technologists’ obligations to look ahead about their job.