This article appears in print in the November 2019 issue, as part of the Most Influential People of the Year feature. Click here to subscribe.

Curt Blake catapulted Seattle’s Spaceflight Industries into a dominant role in the global satellite race last December by pulling off a record-breaking rocket launch that involved a payload of 64 small satellites from 17 countries. Under Blake’s leadership as chief executive officer of the company’s rocket-launch and rideshare subsidiary, Spaceflight will have overseen some 23 rocket launches ferrying 226 satellites into Earth’s orbit or beyond by year’s end. Blake estimates that Spaceflight now has “70% to 80% of the rideshare market.” Asked why he chose to pursue a career from Seattle, versus a city with strong ties to the space industry, like Houston, he says, “The simple answer is because I grew up here, and I wouldn’t live in Texas.”