Pasadena, California – Sophia Space is proud to announce that Jim Chase, a distinguished aerospace engineer and leader, has joined the company as Vice President of Engineering. Chase brings decades of experience from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where he played pivotal roles on landmark missions including Phoenix, Curiosity, and several others that have significantly advanced humanity’s understanding of the solar system.

Throughout his tenure at JPL, Chase earned a reputation for technical excellence, visionary leadership, and a deep commitment to the collaborative spirit that defines space exploration.

“My JPL colleagues inspired me, challenged me, and gave me experiences I could never have imagined,” said Chase. “Some of the most extraordinary individuals I’ve ever worked with are still there, and I remain deeply appreciative of each of them. My dedication was always to the team—and I hope that was reflected in all we achieved together in living out JPL’s call to ‘dare mighty things.’ That same spirit now leads me to Sophia Space.”

At Sophia Space, Chase will lead engineering efforts as the company pioneers a new generation of high-performance computing infrastructure designed for deployment in space. The company’s core platform, based on modular TILES architecture, leverages the unique physical advantages of space, abundant solar power and extreme cold, to radically improve energy efficiency, computing performance, and sustainability at scale.

“Space offers what Earth increasingly cannot: continuous access to solar power and the near-perfect cooling of the cosmic vacuum,” said Chase. “We are designing and testing the first systems that fully harness these advantages. Our TILES architecture is purpose-built to deliver exponential improvements in compute capability while minimizing environmental impact.”

Jim Chase’s appointment marks a significant milestone in Sophia Space’s mission to reimagine the future of computing, beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

About Sophia Space
Sophia Space is building the world’s first space-native compute infrastructure, enabling high-performance, energy-efficient computing in orbit. By capitalizing on the unique environmental advantages of space, Sophia Space aims to meet the growing demands of AI, data science, and real-time analytics while dramatically reducing Earth-bound energy consumption.