Yvar’s Retrospect on his Da Vinci Satellite Years

My time at Da Vinci Satellite started on a rainy afternoon in Texas. As I was rounding up my internship and preparing to return to Delft, I was looking for a new challenge to dive it and I saw that the Da Vinci Satellite Team was recruiting new members. Captivated by the mission of inspiring the next generation for space and technology, I contacted the team with the wish of contributing to this beautiful goal.

Fast forwarding a few weeks, I joined the team as the second Technical Manager. Even though I had little prior knowledge of the project and no experience in the space industry, I became responsible for a team of 55+ people. Luckily, this daunting task was made manageable by the support of all the passionate and knowledgeable members in the team and the staff of the faculty. I am very proud of the hard work that everyone did and the progress that we made in terms of design, testing and assembly.

As the new academic year approached, I started with my MSc. thesis. Next to that, I decided to continue in my role as Technical Manager in the Core Team – a decision that turned out to be one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced, but ultimately one that taught me a lot of valuable lessons. During this year, the technical department worked harder than ever before, as apart from the regular activities of the team we worked on the selection procedure for ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! 4 program. This period coincided with the largest workload of my thesis, so working until late at night everyday became the norm instead of the exception, but I was determined to do everything in my power to give us the best chance at being selected.

After writing a detailed proposal of our mission and technical developments, which ended up being submitted on my birthday, we got invited for the selection workshop at ESA ESTEC. Here, we got the opportunity to share the passion for our project with ESA experts and other student satellite teams from all over Europe and Canada, and were met with a lot of positive and constructive comments. Our hard work and enthusiasm were rewarded, as after a nerve-wrecking couple of weeks we got the news that we got selected. Being part of this program opens up a whole new world of opportunities to ensure that we fulfil our mission and reach even more children.

I am extremely proud of everything that we achieved during my time at Da Vinci Satellite, where I met a lot of people that had a big impact on my life. It certainly wasn’t always easy, but I am grateful for the hard work of everyone involved. Although I am no longer a student, I will closely follow the progress of the team and try to help out where possible. In the end, it’s not just about building a satellite — it’s passing on our passion for space to those who will shape the future.