Meet the rocket builders: The people behind propulsion

The theme of World Space Week 2026 is "Rocket Revolution".
This is our profile interview with a project or programme professional working in propulsion or launch.

Interviewee
David Tellett, Project & Programme Professional, Magdrive 

David develops R&D projects and leads bid writing at Magdrive, building consortia and securing research funding from the UK Space Agency, ESA, the European Innovation Council and others and managing relations with stakeholders within government, space agencies and primes. He previously worked in business development and project management roles at technology startups analysing satellite imagery and providing software for use over satellite communications, and sales roles in commercial aerospace. 

Magdrive is one of Europe's fastest growing space propulsion startup companies. Backed by top tier VCs and space agencies, Magdrive has gone from bedroom prototype to orbit in five years and delivered its first commercial hardware. We develop high thrust, high efficiency thrusters for satellites and small spacecraft to help humanity become a spacefaring civilisation. 

Our interview

1. From your perspective, how are advances in propulsion changing what is possible in space once a spacecraft reaches orbit? 
   
   Spacecraft normally still needs to move after reaching orbit: even most satellites need to periodically fire thrusters to maintain orbit, or avoid collisions. But it doesn’t take nearly as much thrust to move in the vacuum of space, and spacecraft in orbit must be able to manoeuvre for a long time on a limited supply of propellant. So efficiency is much more important for designers of satellites and small spacecraft, which increasingly means using electric propulsion systems over less efficient chemical thrusters, even though that means orbital transfers take longer. Magdrive’s contribution to advancing propulsion technologies is develop thrusters which are compact, efficient and easy to integrate with small satellites but also produce more thrust than electric propulsion systems usually do for faster manoeuvring. We also use solid metal propellant rather than rocket fuels or rare noble gases, which is easier to store and could be a big deal in the longer run, since there’s a lot of metal to be found in space! 
   
   Other big advances include companies orbital refuelling to allow longer missions, the emergence of space tugs and the massive increase in the number of satellites and spacecraft being launched, which will create many more commercial opportunities for us in future.
   
   
2. People often think of rockets as the stars of the space industry.
   What role do project and programme professionals play behind the scenes in turning ambitious propulsion technologies into real-world missions?
   
   Broadly there are three different areas:
   -Firstly, developing new space propulsion technologies involves a lot of research and development activity, and whilst that can start off as pure experimentation (in our case it started with the company founders assembling a prototype in the garden!) eventually we end up with multiple teams to coordinate, and multiple potential research priorities competing for attention. There’s also a lot of hardware to budget.
   -Secondly, a lot of that R&D is in collaboration with other companies, or supported by space agencies. These relationships, dependencies and deliverables need managing and bids need writing. Also space agencies like to see a lot of documentation to show how your work is progressing and validate your technical achievements.
   -Last but not least, delivering hardware that actually flies needs to meet strict criteria for qualification and delivery timescales. We now have a dedicated manufacture, assembly and integration team for this with an experienced programme manager.
   
   
3. The space sector is moving faster than ever, with new launch providers, spacecraft and missions emerging around the world.
   How do you balance innovation, risk and delivery when managing projects in such a rapidly evolving environment?
   
   Magdrive is in the process of transitioning from a company focused mainly on R&D to a company delivering its first client projects and plans rapid scaleup, so we’ve had to think a lot more about delivery and process recently.
   
   On the R&D side, one thing which has always been critical to allow space companies to innovate and take risks is funding support from space agencies and other innovation funding bodies. We’ve been fortunate to have had excellent support, but it takes careful resource planning – we need to be able to deliver on grants that we win, and still make progress if our funding bids aren’t successful. Another priority is ensuring that even our more ambitious and “sci-fi” sounding funded research collaborations like designing modules to be robotically replaced in space or recycling orbital debris into propellant are closely aligned with our core propulsion system development programme. 
   
   
4. Looking back on your career at Magdrive, what project milestone best captures the excitement of being part of today's space revolution, and what did it take to achieve it?
   
   The most significant milestone in the company’s history was delivering our first full propulsion system to D-Orbit in Italy for launch. Though the truly exciting moment wasn’t that, or even the launch itself in June 2025 (a routine launch for SpaceX, a giant leap for Magdrive!) but the moment we got our first data back, and knew that we would actually be able to conduct space testing.
   
   What it took to achieve it was 5 years of hard work by a skilled team of engineers, a lot of iterations, some very long lab days finalising the assembly by the delivery deadline and a lot of investment. Much of this happened before I joined so I can’t even claim credit for it! We were also fortunate enough to have the support of the European Space Agency’s ScaleUp programme in funding that first launch.
   
   
5. As access to space expands, more young people will have opportunities to contribute to the sector. What advice would you give to someone interested in helping shape the future of space through project or programme management?
   
   A big one is to show your passion for space. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or any type of engineer (I’m not!) to work in the industry, but you will have to work closely with highly technical people who have long dreamed of working in space, and convince them you care too. So being able to show your interest in space technologies will help set you apart from project managers focused on IT and other industries, whether that’s in the form of working on student projects and competitions, work experience, hobbies or self-guided learning.  
   
   It’s amazing how many universities have rocket teams, but space isn’t just about the rockets – it’s a much broader industry than most people realise covering everything from telecommunications to satellite image analysis, and on the hardware side it includes mass produced components and highly specialised scientific research instruments, not just whole spacecraft. So there are a lot of areas where other scientific and software backgrounds overlap with technologies that end up operating in space or processing data received from space. All of these matter, and the most innovative and most successful companies aren’t always the most glamorous ones.