About

Dr. Sam Richards

Sam is the Founder and Director of Meridian Space Command, where he sets the strategic vision and leads the delivery of complex, high-impact space missions. With over 20 years of international experience across the space and aerospace sectors, Sam is recognised for his deep operational expertise, technical leadership, and ability to bridge the gap between emerging innovation and mission-critical delivery. He has directed missions for NASA, scaled mission orientated startups from zero-to-IPO, led commercial and sovereign programmes, and worked across domains including Earth orbit, Deep-Space and Lunar exploration, and Hypersonic atmospheric flight.

Sam’s approach combines hands-on leadership with a strong commitment to collaboration, enabling Meridian to serve as a force multiplier for mission operators, defence stakeholders, academic institutions, and commercial ventures. Each project taken on reflects a broader goal: to make space more accessible, more secure, and more useful to the world around us.

At Meridian, Sam champions the development of sovereign space capabilities and next-generation talent. He develops and oversees a suite of services spanning mission support, enabling technologies, and professional education, all designed to accelerate the readiness and resilience of the UK and its allies in space. Under his leadership, Meridian also partners with developing space nations to support their first steps into orbit and beyond. By focusing on sustainable capability-building, Meridian helps emerging space programmes grow with confidence, autonomy, and a clear path to mission success.

For every client engagement, Sam defines success by making himself redundant. His goal is to build the internal capability, confidence, and culture needed for teams to thrive independently long after the mission support concludes. Through focused in-house education and hands-on knowledge transfer, he ensures each organisation is equipped to lead its own future missions without external reliance. This approach allows Sam to move on to the next challenge with pride, knowing that true success is measured by the lasting growth and autonomy of those he supports.