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For satellite development engineer Prithvi Sathiya, a job in aerospace was always his north star — he just took a unique path to get here.
With a degree in computer engineering from the University of California – Santa Barbara, Prithvi tried a few different industries ranging from real estate and office systems to robotics and marketing automation. While he learned a lot about data engineering along the way, it wasn’t until he landed at Blue Origin that he felt he was getting closer to where he wanted to be.
"While my prior role was at an aerospace company, the data I interacted with was focused mostly on data processing,” he says. “They were things like HR data, financial data and back-office functions. I wasn’t close to the rockets, which is where my interest really lies.”
When he heard about E-Space through a friend in late 2021, Prithvi flew to the Boston area and met with Founder and CEO Greg Wyler.
“We hit it off and I joined right away,” he recalls. “I’m really happy where I’ve ended up working on ground systems engineering.”
This, he says, involves the complex communications setup that allows the ground systems to “talk” to the spacecraft as well as TT&C — the telemetry, tracking and command data that controls the satellite and monitors its status.
“I’m working to make sure all the RF parameters are correct and that there’s enough of a link for all the different parts of the orbit,” he says.
In his role, Prithvi works with the flight software and systems engineering teams, and as E-Space prepares for its pre-production satellite system launch, he will interact more closely with teams covering Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) and avionics, to name a few.
Being able to be part of so many different teams and systems is exactly where he wants to be.
“It’s the ideal role I’ve always wanted, where I get to use my data engineering experience and apply it in the space industry.”
Looking ahead, he anticipates his role changing even more.
“It’s pretty cool to be close to the space product and have a direct impact on the production system when we launch,” he says. “I’ve learned a lot at E-Space, and from the
standpoint of the things I’ve always wanted to do, it’s just been a great experience.”
