Dr. Lena Okajima

Lena Okajima holds a Ph.D in Astronomy Science from the university of Tokyo. She then joins Goldman Sachs Japan to learn about financial processes.

From 2009, she has been embarking on the idea of creating man-made meteor showers (shooting stars) for entertainment and science purposes. She tested some materials and found out they could be very bright when heated up. As the ‘New Space’ trend blossomed, she realized it was possible to design and manufacture small satellites to carry these particles. Therefore, she founded the Japanese space entertainment company, ALE Co., Ltd (which stands for Astro Live Experiences) in 2011. ALE aims to contribute to the fields of entertainment, space technologies, atmosphere and aerospace sciences.

In 2017, she received the "Start-up of the Year 2018 Porsche E-Performance Award" at the Forbes Japan's Top Entrepreneurs at a ceremony held in Japan.

The same year, ALE was selected by JAXA's Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration competitive program. On January 18^th 2019, JAXA Epsilon #4 rocket successfully launched ALE-1 satellite, which includes the world first man-made meteor shower technology.

Looking into the future, the company is focusing on the efficient use and transfer of technology and knowledge to other and broader fields. By measuring atmosphere environment data and providing them to companies, agencies and universities, the company hopes to contribute to scientific areas (climate change, high-speed flight, meteors, etc) and enhance people daily life.

Lena Okajima is born on February 19^th, 1979 and was raised in Tottori prefecture. She is married and has two sons.