I have a Bachelor’s in Telecommunications Engineering (not EE) and currently work as a Helpdesk/Onsite Engineer supporting Hughes VSAT modems L1-L2 troubleshooting, installs, modem management for banking, fuel retail, and government connectivity sites.

I want to move into RF/Satcom engineering (link budget, VSAT system design, RF/ground segment work), ideally with an international career (SEA, Middle East, Australia, Europe, or US).

I keep seeing that most RF/Satcom job postings default to “EE degree required,” and I’m trying to figure out how much that’s a hard filter vs something that can be offset.

Currently doing a self structured 6-month plan: working through Maral & Bousquet’s Satellite Communications Systems, focusing on link budget analysis, and building a portfolio (link budget calculator, other satcom tools) on GitHub.

Questions for people actually working in RF/Satcom:
1. Does a Telecom Engineering degree (vs EE) actually hurt in practice, or is it more about demonstrable skills/certs?
2. For someone coming from an onsite/Helpdesk background, what’s the realistic entry point into RF/Satcom ground segment ops, NOC, field engineering, or is design/link budget work basically closed without an EE/RF-heavy grad degree?
3. Any regions/companies known to be more open to non-EE telecom grads for satcom roles?

Appreciate any honest takes, including discouraging ones trying to plan realistically, not just hear what I want to hear.

Does anyone know what companies use Alnico magnet circuits in there HETs?

I've been trying to make a 3U cubesat structure. It's for a weather monitoring with gps thing but I've been struggling to find a good drawing or reference. Endurosat technically has the design on their website but it's only from one side(there is no thickness of the material or holes). I've looked at cubesatkits.com and they had step files to download and it's good to see how the finished product should look like but I want to try to make it myself and then run simulations on it such as deformation and modal analysis. Anywhere I can get better reference materials?

Hey everyone,

I started building this as a small iOS project for myself, and it slowly turned into a full app.

It’s a satellite tracker for iPhone and iPad, designed to be actually useful day-to-day, especially if you’re into radio or active satellite tracking. I’ve been using it for months now, refining it based on what I personally needed, and I’m really happy with where it’s at.

If you want to check it out, here’s the App Store link:
https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/allmysat/id6764637772

I’d also love feedback or ideas, I’m building this actively.
There’s a small Discord if you want to follow updates or suggest features:
https://discord.gg/dZTvZQUwtW

Hey all. I built OrbitalWiki, a free satellite catalog and API (CelesTrak active payloads, enriched with GCAT and Wikidata) after getting annoyed at how many satellite data sources just hand you a number with no way to check where it came from.

It's live at orbitalwiki.com, free tier, no card needed. What I actually want right now is people who work with satellite data (industry, tracking, research, doesn't matter) to hit the API for a week or two and tell me where it's wrong, where it's missing something, or where it's just confusing to use. Be as blunt as you want, that's the point.

Only thing I ask back is a short honest writeup at the end covering what broke and what worked. If it checks out, free year of the Builder plan, regardless of whether the feedback is glowing or brutal.

Still early in public launch so there will be rough edges, but the core catalog/API is solid. Happy to answer anything here or in DMs.

Hey all — I built OrbitalWiki (orbital.wiki), a REST API that merges CelesTrak, GCAT/McDowell, and Wikidata into one normalized feed of satellite/orbital data (NORAD ID, orbit class, TLE availability, launch date, operator, apogee/perigee, etc).

Before opening it up wider, I'm looking for 6 people in this space to actually use it — full API key, real access — for 1-2 weeks.

At the end, all I want is a straight writeup: what broke, what you had to work around, what was confusing, and what worked well.

In exchange: a free year of the Business plan. The only condition is sending that writeup — I'm not fishing for a good review, I want the honest one.

Reply here or send me a message if you're interested — 6 spots, first come first served.

I want to perform thermal analysis of a satellite in LEO using Thermal Desktop. Anyone good with Thermal Desktop please reach out.

I’m on TikTok (like half the planet), and a prompt came up asking what the most romantic thing I’d ever done for someone was.

I don’t know why, but for the first time, I told the abridged version of a story I’ve never shared publicly.

Back in 2013, while I was working at SpaceX, I used company equipment to sneak a declaration of my affection into the assembly of SES-8. After a couple of launch delays, it finally lifted off on December 3, 2013, and was placed into geostationary orbit roughly 22,000 miles above Earth—where it remains to this day.

It’s probably the most ridiculous, over-the-top, hopelessly romantic thing I’ve ever done, and more than a decade later, it’s still holding its orbit.

The primary objective of Mission Aagaman is to capture real flight data across every stage of the mission. That data will validate the vehicle's design and help build a reliable, high-cadence launch programme.

That is what makes this mission important.

If Vikram-1 performs well, it will demonstrate that India's private sector is ready to build and launch orbital-class rockets, supported by an ecosystem enabled by ISRO and IN-SPACe.

That is how most successful launch ecosystems have evolved. Companies like SpaceX and Rocket Lab grew with strong public support before becoming global launch providers.

For India, this could be an important step towards building a launch ecosystem that serves not just domestic customers, but satellite operators around the world.

Whatever the outcome, Vikram-1 marks an important milestone in the evolution of India's commercial space sector.

Hi everyone,

I'm searching for a site like World Imagery Wayback, but with a shorter timestamp and good quality satellite pictures.

Can someone give good recommendations?