User:DexterKnowsIt/sandbox

Dexter Baño is a Filipino space entrepreneur born on November 2, 1997 in Ozamis City, Misamis Occidental. He is engaged to Angelica E. Escarnuela and his parents are Shirley V. Pormento and Dexter P. Baño Sr., both public school teachers. His father died in 1997, few months before he was born.

Dexter Baño studied pre-school to grade school at Balingasa Elementary School in Quezon City, Metro Manila Philippines and finished valedictorian. He then moved to high school getting a full scholarship grant from A Better Chance Foundation and studied at Siena College Quezon City. He finished as one of the bests in their academy and led the Citizen Army Training Corps of the said institution.

Before entering college, Dexter Baño struggled identifying his career path. He always wanted to be an astronaut or a doctor but their financial capabilities are very limited. He passed the entrance examination at University of the East - Manila with high marks without preparing for it. Dr. Atty. Pablo S. Trillana III, a well-known author and biographer of Dr. Jose Rizal, Philippines national hero, wanted to shoulder his studies to pursue accountancy. Due to his passion for national issues and history being the youngest biographer and author about Rizal, he also considered taking history or political science as his major in college but Dr. Trillana insisted that he should accept the University of the East scholarship that he offered and take accountacy as a pre-law major. Dexter's mother, Shirley insisted not to take that path.

Upon recommendations, Dexter Baño entered Quezon City University (formerly known as Quezon City Polytechnic University), a not well acclaimed city-funded school. For the first two years of schooling, he did not perform well. He was skipping school events and ditched classes. During his third and final year inside the university, he excelled and led Quezon City University's Young Entrepreneurs Society.

In his tenure as the president and officer-in-charge, he helped student entrepreneurs grow their startups. Together with his team and adviser Daryl Panganiban, they created development programs for the student body which were first in the history of the university. When he graduated college, he received few appreciations from the faculty, the administration and the school community.

After leaving college, he started Pormento Food Systems, a continuation of his vision and college startup that created a space food that could sustain individuals' daily nutritional needs in just one pack. It failed miserably after being left behind by a Malaysian businessman who promised him to exclusively distribute his products to leading supermarkets and stores around the Philippines.

He suffered from his first business failure but the uncertainties of seeing the Philippines struggle during calamities allowed him to form OrbitX or Orbital Exploration Technologies, Inc. on June 2, 2019. His partner Angelica encouraged him to pursue the venture.

The first goal of OrbitX is to create a propulsion system that will be powered by biofuels from algae. He then established a small group of young people from different academic backgrounds and universities.

For more than a year, OrbitX became the first and only commercial counterpart of the Philippine space program. Philippine Space Agency (still decentralized) was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2019, months after OrbitX was founded. OrbitX partnered with Polytechnic University of the Philippines to extract methane fuel from algae while also working on Haribon SLS-1, a two-stage suborbital rocket that will be powered by their own renewable rocket fuel called "RP-2" that came from waste plastics.

OrbitX who has a motto of "Sustaining earth. Accessing space." is not just working on space access and technology but also on the improvement of public transportation sector. They developed biodiesel and other industrial fuels for Philippines' well-known modes of transporation - jeepneys and vans.

Dexter Baño was awarded with Gerry Roxas Leadership Excellence Award (2015), Junior Chamber International Youth Leadership Excellence Award (2019), Sec. Salvador M. Enriquez Jr. Service Award (2019) and Marketing in Asia's Rising 70 Professionals (2020). His company is being recognized by experts and the international space community for their courage to start a new space venture in a developing country with no existing infrastructures and capabilities. Recently, CV Magazine highlighted and nominated OrbitX for its Aviation and Aerospace Awards.