I thought I knew the straightforward Firefly Aerospace story. First an Austin space unicorn, then an IPO, and a finally a Moon landing. I watched To the Black (https://totheblack.com/) and realized I had no idea how brutal the road was. Eric Salwan was one of Firefly’s co-founders and earliest investors, then went from IT to business development and became the person selling rockets that did not exist yet. Scott Edwards is the Austin filmmaker who spent six years inside Firefly making To the Black.

The thread running through it is what has to happen before something impossible starts to look inevitable. People come back, talent gets built, Austin becomes more capable, and Scott stays long enough to show the parts nobody puts in a launch video.

The Agenda
0:00 The road behind Firefly
11:26 Scott gets final cut
23:01 How Briggs came around
29:02 Why Firefly chose Austin
35:23 The job was just the formality
39:45 Firefly hired interns from day one
45:13 Scott becomes part of the team
51:43 Six years of footage, 95 minutes
58:36 Austin’s creative + hardtech divide
1:05:26 We touched that

Guest Bios
Eric Salwan, Co-founder & Director of Commercial BD, Firefly Aerospace

Eric Salwan is a NewSpace advocate and entrepreneur. As one of the seed investors and first employees of Firefly Space Systems, Eric was a member of the team that worked to create an innovative small satellite launch solution. Eric was the Information Technology Director at Firefly Space Systems, responsible for all aspects of the Firefly IT infrastructure.

Eric is the co-founder of Firefly Aerospace, the industry leader in end-to-end responsive space services. As Director of Commercial Business Development, Eric was responsible for developing the commercial business pipeline for the Firefly Alpha launch vehicle.

Scott Edwards, Merit Productions
As an award-winning filmmaker based in Austin, TX, Scott has been creating documentary style content for brands such as Dell, Cadillac, Microsoft, Autodesk, Asana, Texas Monthly & others. He regularly produces content for the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. Scott discovered Firefly in 2016 and began an exclusive relationship with them to document their journey as a space startup. Having studied as a painter, Scott’s visual talent informs his filmmaking. After 10 years in the making, Scott is releasing his debut feature documentary, To the Black.