I’ve been in love with space for as long as I can remember. I can lose a whole weekend to documentaries about black holes, the hunt for exoplanets, the launch of space telescopes, or how the universe began.
So when I joined Satlyt as Growth and Marketing Associate nearly six months ago, I thought I’d have a head start. My background is in architectural design, marketing and branding, not engineering, but I felt I knew enough about space to keep up.
It turned out I knew very little about the practical side. I’d seen and admired countless images from Hubble and James Webb, but I’d never once stopped to think about how those images got to Earth. That gap turned out to be one of the most useful things I brought to the job.
In my first few days at Satlyt, I found myself wondering what felt like something I should have known already (especially considering the company I was now working for): why can’t a satellite just send everything it collects straight down to Earth, like a livestream of data? I literally had no idea, and the question felt too silly for me to ask. We move huge files around the world every day without thinking about it, so I assumed space worked in the same way.
What changed it for me was learning that, for many satellites in low Earth orbit, contact with a particular ground station lasts only a few minutes per pass. How much data they can send depends on the connection and the time available.
Meanwhile, their cameras and sensors can keep collecting data between passes. Operators have to decide what to send and when, especially when there’s more data than the available connection can carry.
That’s one of the problems Satlyt works on. Running software onboard lets a satellite “think” and process data where it is collected and prioritize useful results for transmission. For example, an application could flag signs of a wildfire so an alert gets priority over less urgent imagery.
Why the silly questions matter
Anyone like myself who doesn’t have a background in space engineering will often have the same kinds of questions I had when I first joined Satlyt, whether that’s investors, people who’ll use the data we help deliver, or anyone who is simply interested in what we do.
My design and marketing background has trained me to think about what an audience needs to understand first. At Satlyt, that often means asking the questions someone deep in the engineering work might no longer think to ask. Once I understand the answer, I can help explain it to someone encountering the idea for the first time.
One of my first projects was creating a new visual overview of Satlyt’s Concept of Operations, or CONOPS. It needed to explain how the system would work and how its different parts fit together. I was learning the system while figuring out how to draw it.
My colleagues on the engineering team helped me break Satlyt down into its different layers. Once I understood each part on its own, it became easier to show how they all fit together.
Being included in our technical meetings helped too. At the start, a lot of the jargon and topics went over my head, but over time it has become easier for me to follow along. In my early days, people kept making mention of someone named Jason. During every standup it would be “Jason” this and “Jason” that. I’d think to myself, “Boy, this Jason guy sure is in hot demand.” I later discovered they were talking about JSON, a common format for storing and sending data, not a very popular colleague.
Nearly six months in, I understand a lot of the technical language I previously didn't, and I know that Jason isn’t a person. Being part of technical meetings helps with all of the work that I do, not just the CONOPS. My job is to explain highly technical work to the outside world, so there really is no substitute for hearing it from the people building it.
If you’re thinking about joining a technical company without a technical background, I’d nudge you to ask the questions early, even when they feel silly. You don’t need to arrive knowing everything. Your perspective can help the team explain what it’s building, and why it matters.
If any of this sounds like you, we’re hiring. Not all of our open roles are engineering roles, and you can find them on our careers page.
