MV Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen On Core Memory

“Historically, there has been a lot of attempts to build stratospheric aircraft… It always started with a lot of promises and a lot of fanfare and very little flying, if any. In fact, when we started out, we were able to identify about $12 billion that the U.S. government had put into building the quote-unquote stratospheric airship. And nothing was up there. And so we very deliberately decided to fly first and talk afterwards instead of talk first and then hope you can fly.”

Core Memory · Startups & Venture · November 2026

Context

Ashlee Vance said Sceye had stayed under the radar, even though someone putting $100 million of their own money into aerospace usually draws attention. Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen explains the quiet as a deliberate choice, set against a history of high-altitude platforms that were announced loudly and never flew.

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Transcript

Core Memory

Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen

Yeah.

Ashlee Vance

…I just feel like I feel like Sky's been a little, you know, somebody puts $100 million of their own money into an aerospace effort. It tends to get a ton of attention. But I feel like you've been a little under the radar, but you guys have been building up to this point where you're starting to.

Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen

Yeah. Let me unpack that. Historically, there has been a lot of attempts. To build stratospheric aircrafts, PAPs, stratospheric platforms. And they haven't ended up. They got a lot of different. And it always started with a lot of promises and a lot of fanfare and very little flying, if any. In fact, the U.S. government, when we started out, we were able to identify about $12 billion that the U.S. government had put into building the quote-unquote stratospheric airship. And nothing was up there. And so very deliberately decided to fly first and talk afterwards instead of talk first and then hope you can fly. Yeah.

Ashlee Vance

Yeah. I mean, you know me. Look, I love aerospace. Everything. I think what you've built is extremely cool. I have covered some of these stratosphere balloons, these airships. They've tended to end. It's very difficult business. Yeah. Yeah. And so

Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen

we're talking to you because we've graduated from testing at this point.

Ashlee Vance

Yeah. And I know we talked about it before, but you still, if I'm being brutally honest, just on the satellite front, I just feel like it really has gone so much faster and farther than anyone would have expected. And it's going to make life difficult for you guys. Even though I see the use cases…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

More from Core Memory

“You have a direct relationship between the altitude of your antenna… and the population density under that antenna that you can serve… So ultimately, unless space entrepreneurs get to a point where they bring space closer to the surface of the planet, they will always be a niche product struggling with densification.” — Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, Core Memory

“Generally, industry best is that for every kilogram of payload you lift, you need about four to five kilograms of aircraft. I think Zipline's at about 5.8. Amazon is even higher. What we've managed to do is we're lifting five kilos of payload with a three-kilo aircraft, as compared to an industry standard of a 25 to 30 kilogram aircraft.” — Naman Pushp, Core Memory