Advanced Space Appoints Dr. Nathan Ré as its new Chief AI Officer

Advanced Space has been leading autonomy at the Moon, and this appointment marks the progress and cutting-edge development of AI within our suite of products.

WESTMINSTER, CO, 30 June 2026 – Advanced Space, a leading space technology company supporting mission planning and operations across cislunar and deep space destinations, announced the appointment of Nathan Ré as Chief AI Officer and Deputy for the Tech Solutions business unit. In this new role, Ré will lead the company’s strategy and execution for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) across products, services, and internal operations.

“We have been working for over a decade to use AI and ML to automate spacecraft design and operations. This position formalizes the next step we’re already taking to leverage and advance the transformative new technologies reshaping many industries,” said Nathan Ré, Chief AI Officer. “I’m excited to join the leadership team in this capacity and to continue building tools that help our customers design, fly, and operate missions more safely, efficiently, and autonomously.”

As Chief AI Officer, Ré will define and implement AI strategy to support Advanced Space’s mission to enable the sustainable exploration, development, and settlement of space. He will focus on integrating AI and ML capabilities into mission design, navigation, and operations workflows, including trajectory design, spacecraft autonomy, and decision support tools for spacecraft operators. Ré will also oversee the evolution of internal platforms and infrastructure that make it easier for engineering teams to safely experiment with, deploy, and maintain AI-enabled systems, while strengthening partnerships with government, commercial, and academic stakeholders on AI-enabled missions, standards, and best practices.

In his role as Deputy for the Tech Solutions business unit, Ré will help guide overall technical strategy and portfolio execution, ensuring that AI is tightly coupled to customer needs and real mission constraints rather than treated as a standalone capability. This combined leadership role is intended to keep AI development grounded in the problem-solving realities of flight projects, mission risk, and operational performance.

Dr. Ré has over a decade of experience at the intersection of aerospace engineering, software development, and AI/ML. Dr. Ré joined the company in March 2015 as Principal ASN Engineer, specializing in low-thrust trajectory optimization. His Ph.D. research leveraged neural network capabilities for operations in highly dynamic Earth-Moon three-body orbits for electric propulsion spacecraft. His research also resulted in a low-thrust trajectory optimization tool that is robust for extremely poor initial guesses, highly performant, and specially designed to handle sensitive three-body dynamics.

As a key team member at Advanced Space, Dr. Ré has led the technical work for an SBIR Phase III to conduct a thorough study of ballistic lunar transfers and near rectilinear halo orbits, from a mission design and navigation perspective. These analyses directly inform NASA’s Artemis Program. He was also Principal Investigator for a NASA SBIR Phase I, II, and II-E/III to study using neural networks to correct spacecraft trajectories onboard spacecraft autonomously. He has demonstrated the ability to develop algorithms suited to project needs, rapidly innovate on prototype versions, and lead a team in the execution of high-fidelity flight designs. Dr. Ré has performed mission design analysis for multiple proposed missions to Mars and the Moon. In addition to the low-thrust trajectory optimization tool for three-body dynamics, he developed and implemented two algorithms for medium-fidelity, many-revolution fuel-optimal trajectories.

Nathan leads the Advanced Space performer team on the IARPA SINTRA (Space Debris Identification and Tracking) program which began in July 2023 to understand the interaction of orbital debris with the surrounding space environment, and whether the resulting phenomena can be used to detect, track, and characterize small, lethal non-trackable orbital space debris. Debris less than 10 cm in size cannot be tracked at scale with current methodologies but pose a significant threat to space assets. Thanks to Nathan’s leadership on the program, Advanced Space was awarded a Phase II contract in 2026 with the SINTRA program to continue developing AI/ML and other novel approaches for the detection, tracking, and characterization of currently non-trackable space debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO).

Another prominent project Nathan has led to support IARPA is the MicroE4AI program. Under MicroE4AI, Advanced Space developed “Space Navigation Deep Learning for our AI Future,” known internally at Advanced Space as SigmaZero. SigmaZero uses ML to identify anomalies in a spacecraft’s behavior, determines what is causing the error, and classifies the anomaly data so correct decisions can be made.

“Artificial intelligence is already changing how we design and operate missions,” said Brad Cheetham, President & CEO of Advanced Space. “Nathan has been at the forefront of connecting modern AI techniques to real flight problems. In this role, he will help ensure we adopt these technologies responsibly and effectively, in service of our customers and our vision for sustainable space development.”