Those Space People

Deepika Jeyakodi is a space lawyer. She currently works with Airbus as a Commercial Contracts and Bid Manager. She is based in the Netherlands.

Surbhi Baghotia is an engineer at the Indian space research organisation ISRO. She has a background in aerospace engineering and has mainly been working on launch vehicles and most lately the human space flight mission of ISRO - Gaganyaan. She is also the president of the alumni association of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), ISRO's very own space university.

Helen Tung is a UK trained barrister and founder of Newspace2060. She has experience in maritime law and commercial disputes in the UK, UAE and consults for clients from across the world. She has previously advised the UK Maritime Coastguard, law firms in Seoul & Shanghai, the European Commission, METI and the UAE Space Agency.

Vanesa Gomez Gonzalez is a ground software engineer with Capella Space. She has previously worked with NASA and also ESA as a software engineer. Vanessa has a background in software development.

Stephanie Wan is an international business development and government relations manager and has been supporting the U.S. and international government agencies on mapping space technologies and applications to other sectors. She has a background in international relations and Science and Technology Policy. She currently works for I.M. Systems Group that provides environmental modelling and intelligence support to NOAA and other agencies. Stephanie is currently based in San Francisco.

Seyka Mejeur and Brian Mejeur are the co-founders of AdAstra - a headhunting and people operations firm focusing on newspace. Seyka has a background in psychology and human resources management. Brian has a background in aerospace engineering.

Nicole Stott is a veteran NASA astronaut and artist. She is also the Director of the Space for Art Foundation. She had a background in aeronautical engineering. Nicole is currently based in Florida.

Lindsey Yee works with Starbridge Venture Capital which is a VC fund that focuses on the space sector. She has a background in international business and economics. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Linsey takes us through the Venture Capital Universe and shares insights on how they evaluate space startups. She talks about how space VC funds work closely with one another and the importance of one's professional network in placing the right bets. She talks about how space focused VC funds are and aren't :) different from non-tech and high-tech VC funds. Who makes the best space startup founders - new graduates or experienced industry professionals? Listen in to know the verdict!

Heather Ann Bottom is a systems engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has a background in astrophysics and space engineering. She is currently based in Hawaii. Most recently, Heather has been a part of the Perseverance rover team of the Mars 2020 mission.

Unlike most space folk, Heather was once a professional dance performer and had dreams of being on Broadway before she caught the space bug. She draws interesting parallels between space missions and the performing arts. Having worked on the launch and cruise phases of the super cool Perseverance rover, she shares insights on the finer aspects of the Mars 2020 and other NASA missions. Having formerly worked with SpaceX, she talks about the differences in working on space missions at a research lab compared to an agile private company like SpaceX.

Alice Gorman, popularly known as Dr. Space Junk, is a space archeologist. She examines defunct satellites, rocket parts and such abandoned human-made objects in space and researches their preservation as cultural heritage. She is currently based in Adelaide, Australia.

Being an archeologist, it is quite interesting how Alice got interested in space and eventually pioneered Space Archeology. Just by examining discarded cable ties, she could unearth important details about a long forgotten space mission that had never been documented.

Did you know that current day satellite communication could have taken a very different path had the little known Project Westford not been discontinued? Alice shares insights on how to get the common person to take ownership of the Moon and contribute towards humanity making sustainable decisions during space exploration and space resource utilisation.