Kalle, a pig farmers son, former military trainer and private sector educator and Mazdak, an Iranian refugee and award-winning film director have been friends for many years. And it was a conversation they had one day in passing that began their dream to establish Spacenation, a company that describes itself as '

I met them in Moscow in 2017, when we experienced together the Zero Gravity parabolic flight. Their vision and understanding of the societal benefits of human space exploration resonated with me. Their story of building the company together, their friendship and shared ideals to leave a lasting legacy on the world is shared with me with humility and wonder. And then of course, there is the word 'nonin', which will always remind me of Kalle and Mazdak. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

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Humans of Space was produced by Catherine Cunning and Mark Gardener of Ox4 Studios, Oxford and music by Tom Beasley. To find out more, and to subscribe for further episodes, go to www.niamhshaw.ie for further details. Follow Niamh on Twitter & Instagram at @dr_niamh_shaw.

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