Helene Huby: The rocket scientist and entrepreneur aiming to boost Arab countries’ presence in space
Helene Huby, founder of The Exploration Company, is working to advance European space transportation while fostering cooperation with the Arab world. Her career path, which began at Airbus, has led her to develop ambitious projects like the Orion capsule components.
Why it matters
Huby's work represents the growing role of private enterprise in space exploration and the diversification of international space partnerships.
PARIS: Helene Huby may still be aged under 50, but she leads one of Europe’s most ambitious space companies, with 650 employees, contracts worth billions and a project that goes far beyond mere technological prowess.
Her ambition is to build the space transportation systems of tomorrow, but also to help shape a space sector that serves as a forum for cooperation among nations — a vision in which the Arab world, and Saudi Arabia in particular, plays a role she intends to expand.
Huby has an almost disarming way of recounting a journey that, seen from the outside, is anything but ordinary.
When asked how she ended up in the space world, her answer can be is a simple one: “By chance.”
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