Dr. Ioana Cozmuta
Dr. Ioana Cozmuta is the managing partner of Gravity Free Consulting and CEO of G-Space Inc, two small, women-owned businesses. These two portfolio companies are a reflection of Dr. Cozmuta’s driving passions: (1) to discover new revenue opportunities at the intersection of Space and Earth Technologies and to help accelerate the time to market AND (2) to develop, design and optimize advanced and new materials by liberating the potential design space from the limiting effects of gravity.
Dr. Cozmuta’s work at the confluence of Space and Earth is based on a nineteen years career in academia, at NASA and in the start-up world uniquely combining expertise in physics, computational chemistry and materials research; data science and space technology with business and entrepreneurship. From her early work in nanotechnology research to engineering projects for missions such as Hypersonics, Stardust, Mars Science Laboratory, Orion or the International Space Station, dr Cozmuta has built a legacy on transforming the status quo, opening new avenues for innovation and devoting her energy, enthusiasm and collaborative spirit to advance the new space entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Dr. Cozmuta holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and post-doctoral specializations in computational chemistry and material design from the California Institute of Technology respectively Genomics and Biotechnology from Stanford University.
Julian Fernandez Barcellona
Julián Fernández is the CEO and Co-founder of FOSSA Systems, the Spanish company democratizing mass access to interoperable low-power IoT devices from space with 13 picosatellites of its constellation already in orbit. Julián has experience in the design of pico and nanosatellites, having launched the first Spanish picosatellite FOSSASAT-1 in 2019 at the age of 16 and later founding FOSSA Systems as a company. He was chosen as a Forbes 30 under 30 in 2022 and as one of the Top 105 NewSpace Executives. He has a background in telecommunications engineering, LPWAN technologies and currently manages a team of 25 people.
Andrew Haslehurst
Andrew Haslehurst is the Chief Technology Officer at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) with over 20 years’ experience on satellite programmes from low earth orbit to geostationary and beyond.
He received his first class honours in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hertfordshire then entered the graduate programme at Airbus Defence and Space working on the Beagle 2 Mars programme before joining SSTL to develop their mechanisms capabilities.
Throughout his time at SSTL Andrew has worked in a variety of technical leadership roles across engineering from power, propulsion to optical / RF payloads and beyond. Working with the teams on project delivery and developing new products this has seen Andrew leading the next steps in the development for the innovative Carbonite mission series developing the technologies for the large deployable SAR for CarbSAR and the innovative MWIR payload for Darkcarb.
Brian Holz
Brian has over 35 years of experience in progressive space system engineering and program management. He has led large multi-disciplinary teams that have developed complex commercial and government space systems with state-of-the-art technology.
From managing $1B project costs to raising equity and supporting multi-faceted boards, Brian’s expertise ranges across the spectrum. Previously, he has built two start-up companies from the ground-up. Being one of the foremost team members and the CTO of O3b Networks, he was instrumental in delivering all its technical systems through the start of service. He headed OneWeb Satellites as its CEO for the first two years and helped raise the initial capital. At OneWeb, he was directly responsible for setting up the joint venture with Airbus Defense and Space, with operations both in the US and France.
Brian holds a B.S in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering from Virginia Tech, where he currently serves on the department’s advisory board. He also has an M.S in Space Systems Engineering from George Washington University.
An outdoor person, he loves exploring new places and finds joy in cooking for family and friends.
Talbot Jaeger
Talbot Jaeger is founder, chief technologist and vanguard developer and provider of New Space products and services at NovaWurks™ Inc., comprised of visionary and inventive teams of pioneering engineers, software architects and technicians that are delivering “Superior Space Logistics and Exquisite Game-Changing Operations for Everyone” and enabling new solutions for energy, ecology, and exploration.
Jaeger’s vision of “cellularized” satellite technology has led to the development of the SLEGO™ architecture and his patented Hyper-Integrated Satlet, or HISat™. The biologically inspired HISat has all the attributes of a traditional satellite compressed into a building block form factor but with advanced aggregation and conformity capabilities which enable multiple HISats to “wrap” around and support payloads and systems of any type. HISat cellularization revolutionizes the space industry by drastically decreasing the time and cost of creating traditional & new spacecraft, by opening the NewSpace market segment to enable commercial and government users with affordable OSAM spacecraft, and by using an open architecture that is applicable at all levels of users.
Jaeger has successfully managed and directed cutting-edge aerospace project concepts, systems engineering, ground and 14 end-to-end spaceflight operations including the Mayflower propulsive CubeSat, launched onboard SpaceX’s first Falcon 9 rocket.  Jaeger began his career at TRW as a draftsman and electrical engineer, later turning next-generation instrument, payload, and spacecraft developer.  Jaeger’s career includes stints as the lead of vehicle design and concept developments at Scaled Composites, as chief architect for the initial phases of the System F6 program, and as Director of Innovation at Northrop Grumman. Jaeger has degrees in biochemistry, information computer science, and electrical engineering from the University of California, Irvine. He also holds a professional graduate certificate in optical sciences from the University of Arizona.
Rob Schwarz
Rob Schwarz is Momentus’ Chief Technology Officer and is responsible for the vision and technical direction of the full line of Momentus products He has more than 20 years of experience working in space systems engineering and product development. He thrives on finding innovative solutions to the complex challenges of spaceflight.
Before Momentus, Rob was the CTO of Space Systems Loral and Maxar satellites. There he supported the development, manufacturing, launch, and operations of over a dozen spacecraft before moving into management roles. Rob also served as Executive Director of Systems Engineering at SSL where he was responsible for creating a new Product Management organization and providing leadership to several new product concepts including in-space servicing, software-defined spacecraft, commercial space stations in geosynchronous orbit.