Fleet Space has announced that Dr Hemant Chaurasia has formally joined the company as Chief Product Officer (CPO).
In this crucial new C-suite role, he will guide Fleet Space products through every step of their lifecycle, from defining the initial strategy and developing the product roadmap to final delivery and deployment.
Raised in Melbourne, Hemant earned his Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Physics at his home city’s Monash University. He then moved to the US to pursue his Masters and PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
He joins Fleet after 14 highly successful years in the US aerospace sector. He began his career with global consultancy firm McKinsey & Company as an Engagement Manager in its Aerospace & Defense Practice, advising C-suite executives in Fortune 100 aerospace, defense, tech and manufacturing companies on growth strategy and product development.
As Vice President of Product Management at Astra, he led the product strategy and roadmap for products including its first orbital launch vehicles and low earth orbit (LEO) constellation; his work helped Astra demonstrate orbital launch capability faster than any privately-funded company in history, and raise almost $500M by going public in July 2021.
Hemant has been driven by a passion for space for as long as he can remember, describing the sector as ‘a kind of Olympic Games for engineering and human ingenuity, pushing the frontiers of possibility’. He is inspired by past projects such as the Apollo programme, the Space Shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station – seeing these as examples of how advancements in space can bring us together and benefit all humankind. Today he sees tremendous potential in the wave of startups applying space technology in new ways to better connect and understand our world.
As Chief Product Officer, Hemant will lead the team further developing Fleet’s pioneering ExoSphere satellite-enabled mineral exploration solution and the space technology platform it is built on. By engaging closely with existing and potential customers, they will ensure that every aspect of the solution, from the technical capabilities of the cloud platform, to the Geodes, and satellite network delivers the best possible value for customers.
At the same time, he and the team will be working with colleagues in sales, marketing, engineering and operations to identify and investigate new customer problems Fleet can solve through its spacecraft technology and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities.
Commenting on his new appointment, Hemant says, “As CPO, my most important task is to build a world-class Product team that can make a big difference to Fleet’s future growth. Product development really is a team sport; I’m fortunate to be surrounded here by truly outstanding people who share a deep understanding of what we’re building together and why.
“The vision that motivates me is to help create a space company that will still matter in 100 years; one that really makes a difference to life on Earth and exploration beyond it. With Fleet, I saw an opportunity to do that. From the beginning, I knew there was something special about it: a team of passionate space technologists and entrepreneurs with a big vision, building an agile space company at lightning pace. It has many of the hallmarks of successful startups I’ve seen in Silicon Valley, including the ability to seek out high-value opportunities for product/market fit and quickly pivot towards them, and to rapidly iterate and ship new deep-tech products at startup speed.
“The ecosystem around Fleet is advancing rapidly, with the Australian Space Agency and other government initiatives. To see all this happening in my home country is a wonderful bonus, and just adds to my excitement about what we’re building at Fleet.”
