The riskiest career move you can make?

A new contract for Isar Aerospace, 30 years of SOHO, and an interview on leaving a safe job for a lunar startup. And of course the best space jobs 😎

Author

Jaime Martín
December 04, 2025

Hello hello

They say "fortune favors the bold," and this week seems to prove it.

On the industry side, we’ve seen Isar Aerospace kick off December with a win, signing a new launch contract with ESA for the ΣYNDEO-3 mission (good luck pronouncing that haha). Despite the name it’s another solid sign of confidence for European launch startups.

On a different note, we just celebrated an incredible milestone: the SOHO solar observatory turned 30 this week!

It was only meant to last for two years but is still going strong three decades later. A testament to European engineering durability.

But sometimes, being bold isn't about building a rocket or a 30year mission. It’s about your own career.

This week’s Career Spotlight is about exactly that: the terrifying, perhaps crazy? decision to leave a "safe" job at a European giant and move across the world to join a startup.

Let's get into it. 👇

🚀 Spotlight: New on findaspacejob.com

Check out some of the best roles of the week!

There are plenty of other jobs in the job board so be sure to check it out. Or else you might miss out…

🚀 Career Spotlight: From a safe job in Europe... to a lunar startup in Tokyo

This week we sat down with Alejandro Sanchez Duran, Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer at ispace.

He did what many dream of but few do: he left a stable job at a European giant (Thales) to take a massive leap of faith—moving to Japan to help a startup fly to the Moon.

Why you should read this:

  • Real Operations: See what it’s like to perform Orbit Determination and Maneuver Planning in real-time.

  • The Toolkit: He breaks down the stack: Python, JPL libs, Least Squares, and Kalman filters—explained simply.

  • The Human Side: Dealing with a hard landing, overcoming imposter syndrome, and adapting to life in Tokyo.

  • Practical Advice: “Do not wait to feel ready. If a role feels slightly out of your league... that is usually a sign that you should apply.” (Facts right there)

Spoiler: this man is a boss 😎

Career Spotlight: What It's Really Like to Be a Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer | Find a Space Job

We sit down with Alejandro Sanchez Duran, a Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer at ispace, to learn what it takes to fly spacecraft to the Moon and handle the reality of spaceflight missions.

www.findaspacejob.com/blog/alejandro-sanchez-duran-career-spotlight

And feel free to connect with him on LinkedIn! Thanks again, Alejandro!

🛰️ A win for Agile Space: HydroGNSS

While we are talking about doing things differently, a quick shoutout to the HydroGNSS mission which launched this week.

It is the very first of ESA's "Scout" missions, a new programme designed to prove that high-value science can be done faster and cheaper (under €30M and in less than 3 years). Built by SSTL in the UK, it will monitor vital climate variables like soil moisture and biomass.

It launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9, which is becoming a bit of a standard sight these days (European payloads flying from Florida...🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️) Let's hope that changes soon

But to be fair, watching that booster come back and land on the barge never gets old. So it’s definitely worth a watch just for that.

That’s it for the week.

Until next Thursday!

P.S. The Career Spotlight is still on so if you want to be part of it: you can do so here!

P.S.S. If your company is hiring and is looking to promote its openings to the Find a Space Job audience, just reach out directly.

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

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