Person
Jacob Balaj
Jacob Balaj is the Co-founder & CTO of Hop Aero (YC S26). US Marine Corps (MV-22 avionics) → SpaceX (Falcon 9/Heavy, built booster refurbishment program) → Virgin Orbit (LauncherOne) → Masten Space Systems (led systems integration on NASA CLPS lunar lander) → SpinLaunch. A decade of making rockets fly on schedule.
American · 2 current roles · 1 founding
Physical AI footprint (3)
The physical AI companies Jacob is connected to that DEPLOY verifies. The full record is one click away.
- Founder
Hop Aero is a [Y combinator](/companies/y-combinator) S26 startup building autonomous hypersonic cargo rockets for point-to-point delivery to contested environm
Pre-Seed · $3M1 model - Former Integration & Test Engineer (Falcon 9/Heavy)
SpaceX is Elon Musk's aerospace company developing reusable rockets (Falcon 9, [Starship](/companies/starship)), satellite internet (Starlink), and autonomous s
IPO - Nasdaq: SPCX (June 2026) · $75B1 verified deployment · Dragon 2 at International Space Station →3 models - Former Integration & Test Engineer
Kinetic launch system using centrifugal acceleration to suborbital velocity.
Series C · $30M1 model
Current roles (2)
Foundings (1)
- Hop Aerocofounderno longer at company
See all founders in the registry.
Co-founders (1)
- Matija Milenovic co-founded Hop Aero
Former / Previously (2)
- SpaceX Integration & Test Engineer (Falcon 9/Heavy)Secondary-verified
- SpinLaunch Integration & Test EngineerSecondary-verified
Sources (2)
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