26 May From the Stars to the Startup: How a NASA Veteran Is Securing America’s Future in Space
A Borrower Profile: FreeFall Aerospace and the Entrepreneurial Second Act of a JPL Pioneer
There is a certain kind of entrepreneur who doesn’t set out to build a company – they simply reach a point where the opportunity is too important to ignore. For Doug Stetson, that moment came late in a nearly 30-year career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, when a gap in the space industry became impossible to overlook.
Today, as co-founder of FreeFall Aerospace, Stetson is channeling decades of planetary science and lab leadership into technology that could redefine secure satellite communications and space-based national defense. And as a longtime member of the Pasadena Private Wealth family, his path to growth capital was one built on trust, shared values, and a relationship that already spanned generations.
A Career That Began Among the Planets
Doug Stetson spent the bulk of his professional life helping humanity explore the solar system. At JPL, he worked on missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and beyond as part of the planetary exploration program that has long been the crown jewel of American space science. A stint at NASA Headquarters in Washington gave him a broader view still, overseeing portions of the agency’s space science portfolio. Like so many exceptional engineers inside large institutions, he eventually found himself traded from the lab bench to the conference room, spending his final decade at JPL in strategic planning and lab management.
Before any of that, his first real business lesson came from a broom and a ledger. In high school, Stetson got a job cleaning offices at his father’s engineering company and his Dad coached him into forming Stetson Janitorial. “It wasn’t rocket science,” he quips, “but it was a start.” That early exposure to budgets, customer relationships, and the unglamorous fundamentals of running a business left a lasting impression. After leaving JPL, he launched a small consulting group – his first real foray into entrepreneurship – and found it more rewarding than he expected.
Seeing the Gap No One Else Was Filling
The idea for FreeFall Aerospace didn’t emerge from a business plan; it emerged from a problem.
As the space industry shifted its attention toward small, low-cost satellites in the latter part of Stetson’s JPL tenure, a significant limitation became apparent: these compact, capable satellites struggled to transmit large volumes of data back to Earth. The downlink bottleneck was real, and growing. Together with Dr. Chris Walker, a professor at the University of Arizona and his co-founder, Stetson saw a way to break it – through a lightweight, inflatable antenna designed to dramatically expand communications capacity without adding the weight or cost that had made traditional solutions impractical.
An early contract from the Office of Naval Research validated the concept. FreeFall Aerospace was born.
Since then, the company has evolved considerably. What began as a communications antenna play has expanded into a broader portfolio of dual-use technologies – products that serve commercial satellite operators and, increasingly, the defense community. The U.S. Space Force, Air Force, Army, and Navy are all part of FreeFall’s growing government client base. The company is also beginning to engage with NASA and the many companies focused on lunar exploration and utilization, positioning itself at the intersection of the two most consequential frontiers in modern space: national security and the Moon.
Technology With a Durable Edge
FreeFall Aerospace was born as a tech transfer spin-off from the University of Arizona, and that origin story is central to what makes it genuinely different. The company has been able to leverage capabilities originally developed for space science and adapt them, in ways competitors hadn’t considered, to the very different demands of defense and commercial communications.
“This has allowed us to attack problems from a different perspective,” Stetson explains, “and has led to some unique innovations we feel will be of high value.”
The University remains what he calls a “force multiplier” – a resource the company can tap for world-class engineering and scientific talent beyond its own headcount. It’s an unusual structural advantage and one that has helped FreeFall punch above its weight in markets that reward both technical credibility and speed of development.
On the commercial side, Stetson sees a market that most people still underestimate. Data flowing through satellites is already woven into the fabric of everyday life, and the proliferation of large data centers – some of which, he notes, will eventually be located in Earth orbit – will only intensify the demand for high-performance antenna systems at both ends of the link. “People may think this is Star Wars science fiction,” he says, “but today the technology really is feasible.”
A Relationship Before a Loan
Stetson’s connection to Pasadena Private Lending didn’t begin with a funding need. It began five years ago, when he and his family became clients of Pasadena Private Wealth – the multi-family office that serves as a broader ecosystem alongside which PPL operates. PPW manages wealth across three generations of the Stetson family: his parents, his wife and himself, their son, and soon their grandchildren. He is also an investor in PPL through that relationship, having seen firsthand the kind of returns the lending portfolio has generated.
When FreeFall reached a critical inflection point – what Stetson describes as a “mini-pivot” into its current focus on space defense – the team’s first call was to PPL.
“The entire PPL team has provided outstanding support,” he says. “It feels like an extension of our family wealth management, as it should.”
The timing of the capital was not incidental. The pivot coincided with a surge in national security investment following recent world events, and with the maturation of FreeFall’s core products to the point where they were ready to enter the market in earnest. PPL’s loan allowed the company to reduce and consolidate existing debt, build out the team, and invest in new equipment and capabilities. “Frankly,” Stetson says, “I’m not sure what we would have done without PPL, so the timing was perfect.”
Managing Through the Unexpected
Like most early-stage companies, FreeFall has not had a frictionless ride. The prolonged government shutdown earlier in 2026 hit particularly hard, delaying key programs the company had been counting on and throwing off the trajectory of its early-year plans. It was a jarring reminder of how exposed small companies can be to forces entirely outside their control.
“Small early stage companies frequently don’t have the cushion required to deal with those unanticipated events,” Stetson acknowledges. PPL’s support helped the company bridge that period – and now that the affected programs have been reauthorized, the path forward looks clearer again.
The company has also learned resilience from an earlier near-miss: a major satellite communications customer that had committed to a significant contract ultimately merged with a larger firm and changed direction, stranding a substantial product investment. Rather than absorbing the loss, FreeFall adapted – modifying the product line into one that now generates recurring orders and has opened new commercial doors. “We were able to see potential beyond the initial plans,” Stetson says, “and that saved quite a bit of our initial investment.”
The Numbers Ahead
FreeFall is projecting up to $10 million or more in revenue for 2026 from a combination of government grants and commercial contracts. If execution continues on plan, Stetson sees a path to approaching $100 million in revenue within roughly three years – driven by the expanding government investment in space defense and by growing commercial demand for advanced communications infrastructure.
It’s an aggressive trajectory for an early-stage company and not an unreasonable one given the environment. Defense spending on space capabilities is accelerating, and FreeFall’s positioning – bridging academic space science, defense applications, and commercial communications – is genuinely uncommon in a market that rewards differentiation.
A Mission Bigger Than Revenue
Ask Stetson what success looks like and he doesn’t reach for a valuation number. He reaches for something closer to purpose.
“I said when we started that my goal was to be able to work on interesting problems with people I enjoy working with,” he reflects. “And I’m glad to say that’s been the case.”
What he hopes to leave behind is a company that employees, investors, and stakeholders can look back on with genuine satisfaction – not just as a financial return, but as a bet that was worth taking. And when asked what he’d want others to say about FreeFall five years from now, his answer reflects the same integration of worlds that defines the company itself: that it successfully blended the rigor of space science with the demands of commercial and government markets – three disciplines not always seen as compatible, brought together in a way that actually worked.
For other entrepreneurs considering private capital, his advice is grounded and practical: make it part of a broader strategy. Mix contract revenue with investment and grants where appropriate. And be selective about your lender, because not everyone who wants to lend you money will take the time to understand what you’re actually building.
“You need to work hard to find someone who understands your situation,” he says.
For Stetson and FreeFall Aerospace, that someone was already part of the family.
Pasadena Private Lending is proud to support FreeFall Aerospace and the entrepreneurial vision of its founders. To learn more about PPL’s approach to flexible, relationship-driven lending for growth-stage companies, visit pasadenaprivatelending.com.