Happy #EngineersWeek! Today we highlight Vianella Spaeth, an engineer with the ARROW Family of Satellites team. “Our design ensures we meet customer needs, and are driven by an accelerated schedule,” she said. This requires Vianella’s team to find fast solutions to tough problems. “We are responsible for the orientation and position of the satellite, which can become quite the puzzle when meeting the operational needs of the customer.” Vianella said her days are never dull when working on these challenges.

Vianella was stationed on a Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) U.S. Navy Destroyer, where she had the opportunity to lead BMD training scenarios and even experience two BMD missile launches, “I left the Navy intrigued by guidance systems of missiles, and became a GNC engineer writing algorithms for BMD missiles,” she explains, “It’s exciting that I now get to approach the same problem from a different angle at Airbus U.S.”

Vianella’s favorite part about her job is the challenges that come with it. “Success really relies on the appropriate mechanical configuration of hardware, sufficient power supplied to units, thermal constraints to remain in operational temperatures… the list goes on. The best part of my job is interfacing with other subsystems to ensure we’re meeting the satellite needs across the board.”