Dominique’s Retrospect on her Da Vinci Satellite Years

I first learned about ‘Da Vinci Satellite’ in the Spring of 2022,  through the Aerospace Engineering study association; the VSV ‘Leonardo da Vinci’. I saw an inspirational team, unique in not just giving university students the opportunity of working on a real space mission, but also by aiming to make a difference for the generations to come. Despite being busy at the time with finalizing my Bachelors degree, I was vastly intrigued, and not much later I applied. I was invited into the ‘Da Vinci Satellite’ office to interview for the position of Public Relations Manager. Without realizing it, at that moment I embarked on a crazy, yet remarkable, two-year journey…

During my first year, I had the pleasure of managing our outreach and recruitment processes. Together with the rest of the Core Team, I worked on our launch contracting, mission & vision and high-level management for the complete team organisation.

One year later, I took on the challenge of leading the Team as its Project Manager, allowing me to meet many more inspirational people within the team, university, space industry and beyond! It was a year of hard work and perseverance through numerous ups and downs, but I am overwhelmed with pride to have led this team and worked alongside our 80+ motivated team members: Our Technical Department worked tirelessly and met design, development and testing milestones, such as the first assembly practice and vibrational testing of the dice payload. Our Education Department ignited a spaceflight spark in the hearts of many children and showcased continuous development progress. Last, but not least, the Business Department ensured that the world knows the name ‘Da Vinci Satellite’ and fortified the project’s backbone in acquisition and communications.

Within the madness and commotion, I found one of my personal highlights: getting selected for the European Space Agency’s “Fly Your Satellite!” programme. Together with the Technical Department we created an extensive proposal document highlighting our mission, project organisation and technical development status. We were beyond excited to be invited to the selection workshop, together with seven other teams: a three-day programme at ESA-ESTEC in Noordwijk. Finally, after a period of anticipation, we got the liberating news: on the day of our annual Stakeholder Meeting, we received the message stating we would be part of the programme! Working with ESA would give us access to technical expertise and testing resources, which would have otherwise been outside our reach. With this, they help us secure a launch opportunity and most importantly: they give us the chance to reach and inspire so many more young minds through increasing our outreach and being able to tap into ESA Academy’s knowledge on educational accessibility and inclusion. We joined the other selected teams at ESEC-Galaxia in Belgium for a fascinating training week, a cherry on top of my work for the team, who will be fostering this collaboration over the time to come.

Ultimately, what I treasure most is the flourishing of the team, outside the achievements of singular departments. The members form a resilient and successful community where individual hard work, dedication, and unwavering belief in this project are what makes it so valuable and unique. As we look to the future, I will stay with the team as an Advisory Board member and hope to support the team through its future progress and elevate education to increasingly higher levels. Let’s keep reaching for the great unknown and bring it back for everyone to get inspired by its beauty. Next stop: Space!

Opening the annual Stakeholder Meeting in Delft as Project Manager