Dire circumstances best describe the early days of Oleg Boltonov, our CTO and Chief Hardware Engineer. Son of parents who had to flee their country, he grew up in a refugee camp near Tattonville. He soon got noticed for his tech skills and his talent to find solutions for all kinds of problems that needed a hands-on approach. One of Boltonov’s earliest dreams was that of flying: He closely watched insects and birds, gazed after airplanes and was awe-struck whenever he saw a rocket launch on TV.

It didn’t take him long to become the nightmare of the neighborhood: His first DIY flying objects often popped through the firmly shut windows of next-door buildings and Boltonov learned 🎶 to like the sound of breaking glass 🎶 But his friendly and charming character helped to offset the explosive nature of his activities by far. Boltonov always lent a helping hand to the neighbors who quickly understood the value of his technical talent and supported his ambitions.

One of Boltonov’s first professional assignments was in a railway factory. His experience of working with pressure vessels is still of use today for the design of our Oxidan rockets.

A friendship that goes a long way back is that between Boltonov and Aleks Vanksy, our CEO and Chief Mastermind. They met in the refugee camp as kids and have been buddies ever since. Ties to Arranque Aumentar go back to the same days, with all three guys sharing the love for technology and science. As you can imagine, their early days saw uncounted competitions of who could build the biggest explosives.

Later on, Vansky, Boltonov and Aumentar started working together and hired a bunch of other people, among them Tien Huu. But things did not really develop. While Tien spent most of his time behind the computer with nobody really knowing what he was about (it was insinuated that he was mostly watching inappropriate content online), while the other three loved to tipple some beers and watch TV together.

This rather jolly, but equally unproductive arrangement only began to change when Freya Thorgeirsdottir came on board. Now the chief organizational developer at OxidanSky, she quickly nudged the guys towards setting up shop as a space agency, defined some key projects and drew an org chart. Arranque Aumentar took Tien Huu under his wings and quickly turned him into the productive code writer that his great talent allows him to be.

One step in the restructuring process was the recent promotion of Boltonov to CTO. This should be seen in the context of our most ambitious project so far: aSpIrM. Boltonov’s expertise is crucial for our success of this mission.

And finally, it’s worth mentioning that the man’s name is totally emblematic: He’s all nuts and bolts and loves things that he can bolt on and off.