Leiden, the Netherlands, August 12, 2026: Iraklis Hatziathanasiou has joined Celestia in the newly created role of Product Director to boost its current growth trajectory and support its mission to develop the next generation of solutions for the space industry.
Iraklis’ career in the aerospace and defence sectors spans more than three decades at senior level. He joins Celestia from CesiumAstro where he was Senior Director of Business Development.
Previously, Iraklis was Managing Director of Swedish Space Corporation (SSC UK) and Head of Strategy & Innovation for the SSC Connect Division. He was also the former Vice President of Business Development at AAC Clyde Space. Alongside bringing expertise from senior technical roles at Honeywell Aerospace, Kymatics and QinetiQ, for the last 21 years Iraklis has held an advisory role with the European Commission as an independent expert in a number of policy sectors, including space.
“I am delighted to be joining a dynamic team with both a great technical basis and an amazing potential, where I can accelerate Celestia’s current success and drive faster and more sustainable growth, particularly in expanding its capabilities from ground technologies to space systems,” said Iraklis.
“Celestia already possesses both the technical knowledge and a range of products that cover many aspects of a telecommunications link. I am very excited about the prospect of building on this heritage to develop the next generation of telecomms solutions for the space industry.
Celestia CEO George Gardner said, “This is a key enabling appointment for Celestia. Iraklis has a rare combination of skills at senior level to enhance our commercial and strategic development, focusing on our advanced telecommunications payload ambition whilst contributing to the group’s growth plans more widely.
