Europe is back in business (and hiring)

Good morning everyone!

For some this might have been a relief: Ariane 64 worked. Europe once again has an operational heavy lift launcher that commercial companies pay for 😎 (the commercial bit is very important)

But this week isn't just about the big rockets. It’s the week of second chances.

We have a thermal startup raising £30M to try again after a satellite failure and a German launcher returning to the pad after a failed test fire and a new podcast episode (let’s go!) about stopping all of them from crashing into each other once in space.

And of course we’ve got some jobs… don’t worry.

👇👇👇

🚀 Spotlight: New on findaspacejob.com

Here are some of the best space jobs available today:

• Space Electronics Engineer @ ORiS (Italy)

  👉 Join an early stage team building wireless power transmission systems 🤯 (it helps if you love electronics this time, but they’ll hire more in the future)

• Spacecraft Operations Engineer @ ESA (Belgium)

  👉 Probably this role needs no introduction so just apply if you want to operate a spacecraft.

• GNSS Algorithm and Performance Engineer @ Airbus (Germany)

  👉 GNSS is still a thing (in case you thought it wasn’t, haha) and you can help it be more robust, efficient and overall better. Not bad.

• ESA Graduate Trainee in Artificial Intelligence Applied to Mission Safety-Critical Systems @ ESA (Netherlands)

  👉 I have to say ESA has some very very very cool graduate roles. Lucky you if you’re a recent graduate.

• R&D Engineer (m/f/d) @ Large Space Structures (Germany)

  👉 Work on building the next generation deployable antennas. You get to work across all stages: from design to testing!

• Engineer, Satellite Manufacturing - Product, meoSphere @ SES (Luxembourg)

  👉 It’s very nice to design things, but it’s often more important to ensure you can manufacture it and build it properly. Well, this role is just this.

• Spacecraft Simulator AIV Engineer @ GMV (Spain)

  👉 Help stress test Galileo spacecraft simulators. Try to break things and then fix them.

But these are not all. If you don’t see a role you like here, go check the job board for the full list. And if not, tell me: what role are you looking to get?

🎙️ Podcast: Solving the "99% Problem" in Space Traffic

And we have a new episode!

This week I sat down with Marco Moriani, the co-founder of ARCA Dynamics, to talk about how we keep space from becoming a crowded, chaotic mess.

The current way we track space traffic is mostly ground-based. But between weather conditions and limited radar range, satellite operators are often making decisions based on incomplete data. This leads to a lot of unnecessary manoeuvres that burn through precious fuel and force services to go offline for no reason.

ARCA Dynamics is changing the game by taking the sensors off the ground and putting them into orbit.

We talked about:

• On-board Processing: Why the real breakthrough isn't just the camera in space, but the ability to process that data on the satellite so you only download what’s essential.

• The Starlink Effect: What it’s like to share an orbit with thousands of SpaceX satellites and why the "big players" usually take the lead on collision avoidance.

• The Lab to Industry Pipeline: How a project in a university robotics lab evolved into a company working with the ESA and the US Space Force.

» Listen to the episode here «

Or watch it here 👇

Why does this matter for you?

If you are (or want to be) a founder: Don't get stuck in the “hardware trap”. These people started out building liquid metal components but they had the humility to realise that hardware was slowing them down. They pivoted back to what they were good at: and that is what actually scaled the business.

If you are a student or graduate: Your thesis might be more valuable than you think. Marco’s team is built on university talent that they brought in-house to solve the problems they had. Don't assume you need decades of experience to make an impact in space. (But it’s true the best chance of making a big impact is joining a startup probably…)

They are still hiring a space systems engineer… and may close it soon. Just saying

🗞️ News: funding doesn’t stop

SatVu gets a £30M “second chance”

Thermal imaging startup SatVu just closed a massive £30M (~€34M) funding round. This is crucial because, as you might remember, their first satellite (HotSat-1) unfortunately stopped working after just a few months in space.

Now they have the money to build the constellation properly, with HotSat-2 and 3 scheduled for launch later this year. An interesting bit is that while everyone else (Constellr and ICEYE among others) is pivoting hard to defense, SatVu is sticking to their original plan: focussing on economic monitoring and climate resilience.

The "All-Spanish" Mission

This is a good one for national sovereignty. Sateliot has officially selected PLD Space to launch their next two 5G IoT satellites. It’s what will be the “first fully Spanish mission”. A Spanish operator launching on a Spanish rocket from a European spaceport. The launch is targeted for 2027, but it’s a strong sign that the local ecosystem is starting to close the loop.

RFA is back (but careful this time)

After the fiery incident in August 2024 that cost them a first stage, RFA is officially back at the pad in SaxaVord. The launch mount is fixed, the tower is up and a new first stage is on its way. But don’t expect a launch tomorrow. They are taking it slow and doing it properly. Meanwhile, Isar Aerospace are still targeting March 19 for their launch. The German race is getting tight!

Sophie Adenot is in space!

Sophie Adenot has become the first of the 2022 ESA "career" astronaut class to reach the ISS. She flew last Friday on SpaceX Crew-12. She’ll be up there for nine months conducting experiments, including testing a new intravehicular spacesuit developed by none other than Decathlon 😎

Quick news

• Orbex: is now officially gone…

• Ariane 64: In case you missed it, the heavy launcher did its job perfectly last week. We are officially back in business. If for some reason you have nothing else to do now, why not rewatch the launch? 👇

And if someone asks you if they should subscribe to the newsletter, you DEFINITELY need to get some inspiration from this, don’t you think?

This is all for this week!

Until next Thursday!

P.S. Hiring? Post your role here

As usual: connect on LinkedIn and follow the Find a Space Job for updates.