Orbital arc Welcomes Natalya bailey and Sam Peterson to its advisory board

Houston, Texas Feb. 10, 2025 – Orbital Arc is excited to announce the addition of Natalya Bailey and Sam Peterson to its advisory board. Orbital Arc is pioneering a new variety of ion thruster, internally dubbed the “RIOT Drive,” that leverages a patent-pending ionization technology to operate with much higher ion current density while using molecular gases as fuel. This enables smaller, lighter thrusters to run more power efficiently on cheaper fuels. 

“Essentially, we are trying to build a thruster that fits on a cubesat,” said Orbital Arc founder and CEO Jonathan Huffman, referring to the small cube-shaped satellite format that’s frequently used for basic research and commercial applications, “but can push like the main propulsion of a major interplanetary NASA mission, and we’re fueling it with stuff that performs like xenon at less than 1 percent of the cost.”

This breakthrough means Orbital Arc’s thrusters offer a flexible, scalable, and modular propulsion system that can be adapted for missions ranging from Low Earth Orbit to interplanetary exploration. 

“Adding Natalya and Sam to our advisory board is huge for us,” said Huffman. “Natalya brings direct scientific and startup business expertise from developing and commercializing her own thruster design, which even took advantage of similar physics principles in how it extracted and accelerated ions. Sam has an incredible breadth of both technical and market understanding and a particular skill set around federal contract capture that we will need as we move from early lab work into building and selling our thruster as a real product. I’m excited to be working with them both!” 

Peterson and Bailey join an advisory board that already includes CREO Inc. cofounders Susan Acker-Walsh and Mike Townley. CREO Inc. is a highly regarded four-time Inc 5000-awarded management consulting startup, and the pair have been longtime mentors to Mr. Huffman. Also on the board are 2x space company founder Terry Trevino and founder/CEO of Desert Works Propulsion Michael Patterson. Patterson had a nearly four decade career at NASA Glenn Research center, where he led engineering of the NSTAR and NEXT gridded ion thrusters, which have flown on several landmark NASA interplanetary missions.

Orbital Arc’s mission is to invent the technologies required to open the solar system to human civilization, starting with better propulsion. The recent advisory board expansion underscores the company’s commitment to transformative innovation in space exploration.

Natalya Bailey
Natalya Bailey co-founded Accion Systems, a company that pioneered scalable ion propulsion for small satellites, and served as its CEO, leading the company from its inception through multiple funding rounds and flight heritage milestones. She has worked closely with commercial space companies, defense agencies, and research institutions to advance next-generation propulsion technologies, and now serves in board roles at a variety of startups while building her own next venture, Squawk AI. She holds a doctoral degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bailey’s passion for innovation and entrepreneurship has made her a prominent advocate for deep-tech startups and space technology advancement. She is excited to join Orbital Arc’s team.

“I decided to work with Orbital Arc first because of Jonathan and his creativity and tenacity!” she said. “Secondly, because of the innovative approach to electric propulsion.”  

Her extensive experience in propulsion technology and company leadership will be instrumental in shaping Orbital Arc’s trajectory as it develops the RIOT Drive for a new era of spaceflight.

Sam Peterson
Sam Peterson brings 30 years of expertise in the aerospace industry, having held leadership roles across commercial, government, and military organizations. With 17 years of international experience, he has built strategic relationships across six continents and successfully captured more than $200 million in B2B and B2G sales in the space sector.

As the Director of Spacecraft Operations at Firefly Aerospace, Peterson architected the company’s spacecraft operations infrastructure, supporting critical missions to Earth orbit and the lunar surface. Throughout his career, he has played leadership roles in more than 35 major aerospace projects, including the Defense Satellite Communications System, Milstar, MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, RQ-4 Global Hawk, Herschel Space Observatory, Planck Space Observatory, International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral), Bepi-Colombo, Cryosat-2, Swarm, and all GMES Sentinel spacecraft.

Peterson is also a US Army veteran and a member of the Adjunct Faculty at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He is deeply committed to mentoring and industry development, volunteering with organizations such as the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC), and the Conrad Foundation. 

Asked why he joined Orbital Arc, Peterson jokes, “Well, it is difficult to find people to play Axis & Allies with,” referring to the fact that he and Mr. Huffman first met to discuss the role over an Axis and Allies game, a shared passion for the two of them. This nontraditional recruiting approach was not the only attraction, however. 

“I also really like the concept for the company,” he added. “There is no shortage of companies who are working on electric propulsion systems. What makes Orbital Arc unique is to have a fuel which allows more flexible options in how it is used and also reduces costs.”