Dr. Ronald H. Freeman is the vice-chair of Space Operations Technical Comittee in American Institute of Aeronautics and Astonautics. Additionally, he is the Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Space Operations Communicator. His research interests include engineering system complexity and system safety. As Editor, he has focused more recently on current topics that caters to the aerospace community, such as space commercialization, space exploration, satellite operations, and the technologies they demand. In addition, Dr. Freeman has published manuscripts; presented at national and international conference; served on national review panels; and taken an active role in providing community STEM programs. He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from The Defiance College (Ohio), a Masters in aerospace science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Uiversity, and Doctorate from Northcentral University.
Sweety Pate is currently working as a Senior Spacecraft Operations Systems Engineer at Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California. Here, she is the Mission Ops Lead within the System Engineering Group for the Power Propulsion Element (PPE) Spacecraft - First Module for Lunar Gateway under the NASA Artemis Program.
Over the past ten years, she has been working with leading aerospace industries and research organizations. During her undergrad in Aerospace Engineering, she won awards from NASA for eco-friendly aircraft designs successively in 2011 and 2012 and presented the award-winning research at NASA Langley. She also received an award from the AIAA in 2012 for space vehicle design. The prize-winning undergraduate studies led to a year-long research position at the German Aerospace Center - DLR, where she worked on innovative aircraft and space vehicle designs using collaborative engineering.
She completed her Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering (specializing in Space Systems) from Delft University of Technology (TUDelft). She worked at Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) as an Assembly, Integration & Test (AIT) Engineer and was a launch crew member of the STRATOS 2+ rocket that set a European amateur rocketry altitude record in 2015. She worked at Thales Alenia Space in Italy on multidisciplinary optimization of re-entry vehicles - Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) and Space Rider. She has been involved in the Poland Mars Analogue Simulation (PMAS) 2017 as an Analog Astronaut and a CapCom. She has experience in model-based systems and concurrent engineering for aerospace applications and has published several papers in this domain. She worked as a Satellite Operations Systems Engineer at QinetiQ - Belgium and was involved in a satellite mission - ALTIUS. Here, she also led the European Space Traffic Management (EUSTM) Horizon 2020 project.
She has a strong network of collaborations and is the recipient of several awards in the industry for outstanding research and accomplishments as a young professional. She led the Women in Aerospace Europe (WIA-E) Belgium Group and was a member of the Space Generation and Advisory Council (SGAC) Belgium. She promoted science among students as Belgium's National Coordinator for the Scientist of a Day NASA JPL competitions.
Larry Bryant has been the Mission Operations Assurance Manager on Phoenix, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Exploration Rovers, NEOWISE, Juno, and Grace Follow-On flight projects at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. Between the U.S. Air Force and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Larry has 46 years of operations and systems engineering experience on satellite, missile, and deep space systems. Larry received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for exceptional leadership and technical contributions in Mission Operations Assurance for NASA Flight Projects. Larry is an Associate Fellow of AIAA and an active member and past chair of the AIAA’s Space Operations and Support Technical Committee. Larry holds a Master’s degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California and undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from New Mexico State University.
Christopher Ross Simpson was born and raised in Port Charlotte, FL. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Alabama in 2016. He was awarded a SMART scholarship from the Naval Air Warfare Center – Weapons Division, China Lake for his Ph.D. work. He is a Ph.D. Candidate in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Alabama and the current Secretary of the AIAA Space Operations and Support Technical Committee.
Simpson Aerospace / LinkedIn / Orbit Determination Lectures
Jillian Redfern is the current CYGNSS Mission Operations and a Project Manager, Deputy Payload Project Manager and Downlink Manager for New Horizons, and PUNCH Ground Segment Lead for SwRI. Ms. Redfern’s principal areas of specialization include data processing, data analysis, and spacecraft operations with over 15 years of experience. Project duties involve communication with international research teams, analysis of flight and calibration data, definition of operational scenarios for current and future missions, and development of new data analysis tools.