Company • July 5, 2025
The additions bring decades of combined experience from established space agencies and commercial launch providers, strengthening PAVE Space's technical depth at a critical phase of product development.
PAVE Space is pleased to announce the appointment of three senior engineers to its growing technical team. These appointments reflect the company's commitment to building an engineering organization capable of delivering orbital logistics infrastructure that meets the reliability standards of both institutional and commercial customers. Each new team member brings a distinct and complementary area of expertise, and together they significantly reinforce PAVE Space's capacity in the domains of propulsion systems, spacecraft integration, and orbital mechanics.
Director of Propulsion Engineering
Dr. Hellén joins PAVE Space from a senior research position at DLR, Germany's national aeronautics and space research centre, where he led a team developing high-performance bipropellant thruster systems for deep-space applications. With a doctorate in aerospace engineering from TU Munich and over 18 years of experience in thruster design, combustion stability analysis, and propulsion system qualification, Dr. Hellén brings institutional-grade rigor to PAVE Space's propulsion development program. He will lead all aspects of thruster development, testing, and flight qualification.
Head of Spacecraft Systems Integration
Tanaka brings fifteen years of spacecraft systems engineering experience, most recently as a systems integration lead at a major commercial launch services provider where she oversaw the integration of payload dispensers and upper stage systems across more than thirty launch campaigns. Her expertise in interface control, systems verification, and integration test management will be critical as PAVE Space's orbital transfer vehicle advances toward its first integrated system test campaign. Tanaka will oversee all vehicle integration activities and lead the systems engineering function.
Principal Orbital Mechanics Engineer
Dr. Okafor is a computational orbital mechanics specialist with a background in astrodynamics research and mission design at ESA's Mission Analysis Section. He holds a PhD in astrodynamics from Delft University of Technology and has contributed to trajectory design for several European scientific and Earth observation missions. At PAVE Space, Dr. Okafor will lead the development of optimal trajectory planning algorithms for the company's autonomous logistics vehicles, with particular focus on multi-target rendezvous sequencing and delta-v optimization for commercial servicing missions.
These three appointments bring PAVE Space's full-time technical headcount to fourteen engineers, with an additional four positions currently open across GNC software, avionics, and structural analysis. The company has grown steadily since its founding, with hiring concentrated in the engineering functions that directly advance the vehicle development program.
What distinguishes this cohort is not just their individual credentials, but the combination of institutional and commercial experience they bring. Dr. Hellén's background in research-led propulsion development, Tanaka's operational experience across multiple commercial launch campaigns, and Dr. Okafor's mission design expertise create a team that understands both the technical demands of spaceflight and the commercial realities of delivering on schedule and within budget.
PAVE Space is currently targeting its first full vehicle system test in Q4 2025, followed by a demonstration flight in the second half of 2026. The expanded engineering team will play a central role in achieving both milestones.
PAVE Space is actively recruiting across multiple engineering disciplines. If you have experience in GNC software development, spacecraft avionics, or structural and thermal analysis, and you want to work on technology that will define how the space economy operates at scale, we would like to hear from you. Visit our contact page to get in touch with our team.