From Starlink to Scarcity: Dialogue with Jonathan Criss—the SpaceX Engineer Solving Earth’s Water Crisis

From Starlink to Scarcity: Dialogue with Jonathan Criss—the SpaceX Engineer Solving Earth’s Water Crisis

From DevelopmentAid Dialogues by Hisham Allam

March 25, 2026 · 20 min · Season 3 · Episode 15

About this episode

Hisham Allam interviews Jonathan Criss about his transition from SpaceX to addressing the water crisis through small-scale purification systems.

In this episode of Development Aid Dialogues, podcast host Hisham Allam spoke with Jonathan Criss, CEO and Founder of Vital Lyfe. After more than 13 years working on Dragon and Starlink, from cargo racks to reusable spacecraft, Criss left to establish Vital Lyfe, a company building small-scale purification systems for remote villages, disaster zones and infrastructure-poor communities already feeling the pressure of climate change. "All the way throughout my SpaceX career, it was just another...

People in this episode

Host: Hisham Allam

Guest: Jonathan Criss

Topics covered

  • water crisis
  • climate change
  • purification systems
  • remote villages
  • disaster zones
  • infrastructure-poor communities

Keywords

  • water crisis
  • purification systems
  • climate change
  • SpaceX
  • Vital Lyfe
  • remote communities
  • disaster zones

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vital Lyfe, SpaceX

More episodes of DevelopmentAid Dialogues

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the DevelopmentAid Dialogues podcast page.