# Ignacio Belieres Montero

> Ignacio Belieres Montero is the Argentine founder and CEO of Epic Aerospace, which develops orbital transfer vehicles for satellite transportation. He studied at Stanford, participated in Y Combinator’s Summer 2019 batch and was named a 2020 Thiel Fellow. Epic’s CHIMERA LEO-1 launched in January 2023; CHIMERA GEO-1 launched in February 2025 and later required emergency deep-space communications support.

- **Role:** CEO & Founder at Epic Aerospace
- **Organizations:** Epic Aerospace, Y Combinator, Thiel Fellowship
- **Nationality:** Argentine
- **Education:** Stanford University
- **Known for:** Founded and leads Epic Aerospace., Y Combinator Summer 2019 participant., Selected as a 2020 Thiel Fellow.

## Career timeline

- **Age 15** — Began building rockets on his mother’s terrace, as recalled in his January 2023 interview.
- **2017** — Named founding administrator of Epic Aerospace S.A.S., incorporated on October 19 in Argentina.
- **2019** — Epic Aerospace participated in Y Combinator’s Summer 2019 batch.
- **2020** — Named to the 2020 class of Thiel Fellows.
- **2023-01** — Epic’s first orbital transfer vehicle, CHIMERA LEO-1, launched on SpaceX Transporter-6 on January 3.
- **2023-09** — Epic placed a €318,000 order with GomSpace for products and subsystems for its space-tug control system.
- **2025-02** — Epic signed a cooperation framework involving Argentina’s innovation secretariat, CONAE and VENG; CHIMERA GEO-1 launched on February 27 UTC.
- **2025-03** — Goonhilly provided emergency communications support to CHIMERA GEO-1 from March 2.

## Achievements

- Founded and leads Epic Aerospace.
- Y Combinator Summer 2019 participant.
- Selected as a 2020 Thiel Fellow.
- Led Epic through the launch of CHIMERA LEO-1 in January 2023 and CHIMERA GEO-1 in February 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Ashlee Vance published a Core Memory feature about Epic’s CHIMERA GEO-1 on January 31.
- **2025-03** — Goonhilly began emergency support on March 2 and reports communicating with CHIMERA GEO-1 at distances up to 33 million km.
- **2025-02** — CHIMERA GEO-1 launched on February 27 UTC; a February 19 government announcement documented a cooperation framework with CONAE and VENG.

## Links

- Website: https://epic-aerospace.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ignacio-belieres-montero-14b457b6
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/ignaciobelieres

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ignacio-belieres-montero
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-14