In this episode of Satellite, Space & Defence Matters brought to you by neuco, hosts Callum Davis and Laurie Scott are joined by the full executive team of Finland’s Aurora Propulsion Technologies: CEO Pekka Blomberg, Commercial Lead & CCO Aziza Ibrayeva, and CTO & Co-Founder Perttu Yli-Opas. Together they unpack how a university hybrid-rocket project became a company building the smallest water-based resistojet thrusters on the market, and why the defence and dual-use wave sweeping European space has caught up to exactly what Aurora has been building since 2018.

The conversation moves from Aurora’s founding story through the “space kettle” mechanics of water propulsion, the strategic shift toward defence and dual-use positioning, and what the next five years hold as propulsion becomes a standard and regulated requirement for satellites of every size.

Key topics covered:

• How three very different career paths, propulsion engineering, defence and cybersecurity, and hospitality/sales converged at Aurora
• The founding insight: more than 90% of CubeSats fly with no propulsion at all, and why that’s a market rather than a limitation
• Balancing startup agility against the space industry’s demand for years-long reliability testing
• How COVID and Starlink’s mega-constellations pushed space sustainability from academic niche to mainstream priority
• The defence and dual-use pivot, why a satellite without propulsion is “a sitting duck,” and how water propulsion enables rendezvous, proximity operations and collision avoidance
• Shorter sales cycles and a defence market newly open to startups
• Redundancy and resilience: a fully dual-redundant propellant system inside a 1U CubeSat form factor
• The cybersecurity parallel, how securing space mirrors the rise of cyber 15 years ago, plus the sovereignty drive across nations and regions
• Navigating fragmented national regulations and the slow road to EU space law
• Why small, agile companies are the industry’s true innovators
• What water resistojets actually are: the “space kettle” explained
• Water’s versatility, resistojets, electrolysis, Hall-effect thrusters, and the path to in-orbit refuelling
• Ground-logistics advantages: shipping pre-fuelled, weld-sealed systems instead of fuelling at the launch site
• Differentiation through customer service and Finnish on-time engineering discipline
• The next five years: propulsion and mobility becoming standard and mandatory

Guest bios:

Pekka Blomberg – CEO. An experienced industrial business leader and certified board member, Pekka spent a long career across defence and security, latterly in cybersecurity, before joining Aurora roughly two years ago. He leads the company’s transition from a technology-development project into a commercial product business with a strong sales and customer focus.

Aziza Ibrayeva – Commercial Lead & CCO. Aziza came into space “by accident” from the travel and hospitality industry in Finland, joining a smaller space startup that valued sales experience over a space background. She drives Aurora’s commercial strategy and customer relationships, is currently completing an MBA, and founded the consultancy CELSTRAT.

Perttu Yli-Opas – CTO & Co-Founder. Perttu co-founded Aurora out of a university hybrid-rocket project at Aalto University, where he founded and led Aalto Propulsion and chaired the Aalto AI Society. He is the technical architect behind Aurora’s miniaturised water resistojet systems.

About neuco:

This episode of Satellite, Space & Defense Matters is brought to you by neuco. 

neuco are a global recruitment and executive search firm that help companies find exceptional talent.

We work closely with clients to understand not only the technical requirements of a role, but also the strategic direction of their business, ensuring every hire supports long-term success.

If your organisation is evolving alongside the industry, we’d be happy to discuss how neuco can help you attract the people who will shape what’s next.