simon klinga

The biggest risk to the space age is not aliens; it is space debris. Simon Klinga ’26, hailing from the Czech Republic, was recently named as one of the youngest people on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Why? Besides launching a satellite with NASA, Klinga is the founder and leader of “LASAR,” a team battling the problem of space debris with a promising solution: lasers. 

“I've been passionate about aerospace since I was around 4 years old. I just loved sci-fi movies like Star Wars.” Klinga said. As he grew, SpaceX inspired him, particularly in the way it has transformed the aerospace industry and in the transparency of its public access. 

LASAR was born as a project for the Conrad Challenge, an innovation competition. “We focused on the problem of space debris, because today we are launching about 60 satellites every week and the amount of debris is growing rapidly,” Klinga said. “[We’re] basically build[ing] a laser base to be able to fire the laser towards small particles so we can evaporate part of its surface,” Klinga said. “The particle slows down, goes a bit deeper into the atmosphere where it starts dragging more, so it burns down a lot faster than it would normally.”

On December 21, 2024, Klinga’s LASAR team launched the first-ever satellite built by Czech students. LASARsat is a tiny cube sent to space with SpaceX, “11.3 centimeters in length,” Klinga specified. “I'm actually getting about two emails from the Pentagon every week about close approaches of our satellite with other satellites.” The closest encounter was eight meters away. “This cube is a perfect target in orbit to which we can fire the laser from Earth and get data,” Klinga said. From winning the competition in April to launching their satellite, Klinga likened the rapid timeline to “trying to sprint a marathon.”

Klinga’s team has grown from five to thirty-five members, creating unique leadership challenges. Klinga described his leadership philosophy: “The important thing is building trust in the people and finding really good people who are responsible. It’s also [important to] step a bit away from it and tell myself it doesn't have to be perfect, because it's better done than nothing.” 

As Klinga works toward expanding his project, the main goal for the project is the desire to become more international and collaborate with experts in the field. “Nowadays we are externally cooperating with PhDs,” Klinga said. “But I think what we really need to do is move them as members of the team.” Klinga also seeks to carve out his space within the market. “It’s not a question of whether space debris is a problem,” he said. “And it's not a question of whether it's possible to do it. The method with laser is how we want to do it; it will just take time, and it will take money.” 

Klinga came to Mercersburg Academy to get a taste of boarding school life in the States. “In general, I’d say people here are more open and more positive-thinking and more driven than the average person back at home,” Klinga said. Klinga will take another year of high school back in the Czech Republic, the typical progression for Czech students, before applying for an American college. 

“It's very important to not only to do the main goal, but also to focus on popularizing the subject to people, especially [citizens] of the Czech Republic,” Klinga said. To this end, Klinga and his team have prepared courses for high school and primary school students to teach them to write code for LASARsat. The code is then sent to the satellite, and students can take their own picture using the satellite, getting the “biggest selfie in the world.” 

“We [Czechs] are a small family, and I feel like often the people don't really believe in themselves and what they could achieve,” Klinga said. “So I'm trying to tell this story that we've actually made true: that a bunch of Czech high school kids can send their own satellite to space.”