Aerospace Industry

I perform mission operations on five NASA satellites. I build hardware and software systems that keep our country safe. I develop future rocket technologies. I’m a Space Weather Forecaster. I analyze the orbits of our satellites. I manage intellect. I’m a Flight Controller for NASA spacecraft. Exploration. Pushing the boundaries of where humans go. That was what I found really exciting. My role specifically is to make sure that our satellite fleet is in proper orbits and in good health and can do any type of maneuvers that we need to do. We’re talking in the thousands of objects up there including satellites and also debris. So, that’s one of my responsibilities is to check where our satellite is with respect to other objects that are in our neighborhood. The role that I play within the company I feel is well appreciated and compensated. and also allows me the ability to kind of pursue my life outside of the workplace which is definitely something I appreciate. Colorado offers a number of opportunities for students studying aerospace engineering or planetary science. I command satellites. That means that if there are any passes that come up I need to be there sending commands, doing planning Just making sure that everything is okay on the spacecraft. Jake will send commands to the spacecraft that I request. He gives me notification of things that are going on so I can evaluate the health and safety of the spacecraft. To think about the fact that while I am controlling a spacecraft that the spacecraft is in space doing the stuff that I’m asking it to do. And I get to apply everything that I learned in college into this real tangible thing and it’s a job like anyone else’s except cooler. It’s always a good conversation starter when you say “Hey I commanded a billion dollar spacecraft from Ball and NASA in my spare time when I’m bored.” One of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me is seeing a rocket launch off of that launch pad because it actually worked. Launch Announcer: liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. This is a part of you. This is something that has come out of your own brain and you create something and then you see it work towards this amazing end product, which is a rocket launch and ultimately a satellite orbiting Earth. This is an Atlas Rocket with an RD180 engine. It uses liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellant to put satellites into space. I like to do a lot of outdoor activities including rock climbing, playing sports so, you work hard and then you play hard. As long as you are constantly developing new skills, as long as you constantly want to get better at what you do, you’re gonna succeed in this business whether you’re a man or a woman. Anyone has a shot at this industry. It doesn’t matter if you're male or female black or white, Hispanic or of a minority group. Just by virtue of you putting in the hard work I think that you’ll reap a return on your investment. Actually I have a business degree background but while in the US Navy I did systems engineering and some analytical work and ironically those were some of the same jobs that Northrop Grumman was looking to hire. We have a wide range of different programs and different projects that we work with from working with ships and working with airplanes to working with some high-end computer hardware and software. Ultimately we are working for the military professional men and women that are out in the field every day in harms way. I really enjoy what I do and the people that I do it for. I’m a Space Weather Forecaster. The events from the Sun; how it interacts with our Earth interplanetary space. And all this activity that is going on within that region is termed as ‘space weather’. As a Space Weather Forecaster we assume the duties almost like a weather forecaster here for the Earth. We have to have information. We have to have data, models and all this stuff to put this together just like if we were forecasting the weather here on the Earth. After all the years I’ve been in this I still am every day excited about what I see and what I can learn. This is my baby. I founded the company in 2001. We’re a technology company. We specialize in security; integrated security solutions for the Department of Defense and commercial. Right out of high school I went to a trade school; couldn’t afford to do college at that time. I worked for a job shop and then from there I just grew with the industry and became certified in just about every networking hardware that was out there My biggest interest was how to use technology to solve different problems. I think the opportunities can be abundant at the large companies that support bases like Buckley Air Force Base or Peterson Air Force Base or Shriver. And you got Fort Carson down here. You also have a lot of small companies like us that support their mission also. Both my wife and I did great in a corporate environment. We both had corporate careers which got us a very decent lifestyle and that lifestyle has funded this company to be honest. Colorado, and the Front Range especially, is one of the biggest in the United States for the opportunities for aerospace and science. I just enjoy the growth opportunity and the breadth of different jobs and different roles that you can play here within the industry. We need machinists. We need technical specialists and manufacturing. We need contracts administrators, IT professionals, human resources, business management, accountants. As federal contractors we can only hire people that are US citizens or permanent residents. So our jobs will not be going over seas. Colorado is just a great place to do your aerospace degree. There’s a lot of national labs around that are easy to get internships at. CU Denver, CU Boulder, and Colorado School of Mines, and CSU. We target them a lot because they produce college students that are well prepared for this industry. You get to use a lot of your skills that you’ve learned in school but then you get to think outta the box. You get to be creative. You get to be innovative. This industry is wide open. It’s open and available to anyone. I love the energy that is in all of the aerospace industry. Aerospace is you, if you want it.