Pele Collins: From SpaceX to Y-Combinator: Unlocking the giant origami structures of orbit

Pele Collins went from leading the SpaceX parachute engineering team that brought American astronauts safely home to co-founding a Y Combinator-backed deep tech startup, Beyond Reach Labs. In his latest interview with Irakli, the proudly South African engineer reveals how his team is tackling the ultimate pick-and-shovel play for the next era of the space race: deployable structures that unfold from the size of a dining table to a full-sized football field in orbit. Building in space historically meant assembling structures piece-by-piece over dozens of rocket launches. Collins wants to bypass those massive costs using dynamic, folding mechanisms. While the company initially entered Y Combinator focused on simulation software, raw customer feedback forced a fast pivot to pure hardware. “...customers said this, I mean this tool's amazing, we'd love to use it, but honestly, can you just go design and build the thing for us?” Collins recalls. Collins credits his resilient problem-solving mindset to his South African roots, highlighting a culture of mutual support that even landed him his first break at SpaceX under a fellow South African manager. “South Africans also always help each other out and... open doors for each other,” he says.