I didn’t think I would be taking any more internships while working on my PhD, but Orbital offered me a great opportunity to do some work with spacecraft and take a small break from all of my aircraft work.  I am working in the systems engineering group for the Cygnus spacecraft, which is the space vehicle being designed by Orbital to perform resupply missions to the International Space Station once the Space Shuttle retires.  The Cygnus development is part of NASA’s Commercial Orbit Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) programs.  It also allows the US to use their own vehicles for resupply missions without having to pay other countries.

It will be nice to take a small break from my PhD work and get some more industry experience, especially in regards to systems engineering. I am still undecided on my plans post PhD (whenever that might be), and hope that a summer at Orbital will put some fresh “industry perspective” in my life.  And even though I’m calling this a “break” from my PhD work, I am still continuing to do PhD work and will have one or two trips to NASA Langley for my GSRP Fellowship, and continue work on preparing for my preliminary exam, which I hope to take this upcoming fall.