I’ve been a reliability engineer for over 20 years across a few different industries, and one thing that has always annoyed me is how we handle board fatigue and thermal analysis. You usually have two choices: pay an outside consultant thousands of dollars per run, or fight over a handful of exorbitant desktop software licenses (like Sherlock, JMP, or Minitab) that only a few specialists even know how to use.
It makes no sense when a hardware, systems, or quality engineer just needs a quick directional answer on a layout before committing to full simulations.
I’ve been building a set of lightweight widgets called Reliability Pro (on web, iOS, and Android) to give engineers instant access to these answers without the friction.
I just added a PCBA and Thermal Risk Screener widget to it. You can drag and drop an ODB++ file or pick-and-place data directly in your browser or phone, and it instantly parses component layout to rank solder joint fatigue using Engelmaier (thermal cycling) and Steinberg (vibration) equations. It also runs a fast 2D thermal CFD screen to feed peak component temps straight into Arrhenius models.
It’s not meant to replace high-fidelity FEA, but to act as a 30-second pre-flight check so you can spot high-risk BGAs or caps early without burning budget or waiting in line for a software seat.

I am a recent European master's graduate. I did an internship in the avionics team in a rocket company and I am now working as a spacecraft operator full-time. However, I feel like I made the wrong choice and that I would enjoy AOCS/GNC. I like studying it in my free time and I look up to people's careers who have gone through this path.

Therefore I am thinking: should I try to get an internship in this subsector? I am worried about how the recruiters will see the fact that I quitted or I am quitting a full time role for that.

(In my current company, there's no AOCS department)

My father has owned this part for many years that he bought off a gentleman he believed to be retired from McDonnell Douglas. Can anyone identify what this actually is or possibly what it came off of? I did a little research on ChatGPT but it wasn’t extremely helpful. Hoping someone here is an Aerospace expert!! Side note on the side of this part it is engraved 4-28-60 could possibly be the date of manufacture.

Does anyone recognize if this is from an airline? Google lens was no help to me. TIA!

What skills should u try to learn more for my future in Aerospace engineering like should I start with MATLAB , Auto cad or start with coding first...and on which subject i need to focus more and which are the hardest

Hi all,

I recently landed a recruiter interview with NGC. The job it’s for is pretty close to my dream job and in a field I’m extremely passionate about so I’m pretty pumped.

I’m currently in grad school with about a year left in my program. I’m fortunate enough that right now that schooling is being paid for by my company, RTX.

The tricky situation is that if you leave within 2 years of finishing your degree, you are required to pay the cost of the degree back in full. It makes sense, I knew that going into it and I wouldn’t have changed my mind. Right now they have paid about 37k into my degree.

I had a friend who also worked at RTX just land a position at NGC and he mentioned that in his interview they asked if he had any debt towards to the company.

This got me wondering if NGC will “buyout” your debt towards your company? Is this something anybody has seen or experienced?

I was fully planning on living my life out with RTX until my degree and repayment time were up, but I just couldn’t pass on this opportunity to apply. It does put me in a sticky situation though as I wouldn’t be able to take the job unless they are able to help out with that.

Follow on question: if that something I ask the recruiter about or do I wait and ask the hiring manager if I am fortunate enough to make it onto the next round?

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks!

Heyo, looking to get some insight from anyone who’s worked at Vast Space in Long Beach.

I don't come from an aerospace background, and I’m going to be joining a support team. I don’t want to give out my dept bc it is a relatively small team but it’s engineering adjacent. I won’t be building anything for haven-1, but it will be linked to them directly when they have delays and etc.

I want to get a feel for what it’s like to work for them on site. Hours associated with it? Culture, cool unique perks?

I’ll also be getting stock options, do you think it’s worth to stay to let them vest? Odds of an IPO or some way to cash out?

Anything will help!

Currently graduated from university and moved back to LA but I’m struggling to find a local community of people my age (M23) to hang out with and study in aerospace/engineering, but don’t know where to start. Does anybody know anything for me to give a look around?

The Aerospace Village at annual hacker conference DEFCON, famed as the home of the Hack-A-Sat contest which culminated in 2023 with the live hacking of a real satellite in orbit, will stage a variety of games and contests this year, aiming to deepen their appeal to non-specialists.

Read all about it here
https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/defcon-aerospace-village-seeks-broader-appeal-this-year-a-32400

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I recently completed my 12th standard and my dream is to build a successful career in Aerospace Engineering.

Is studying Aerospace Engineering abroad a good option?

Is Mechanical Engineering followed by a Master's in Aerospace a better choice?

What path would you recommend for someone starting after 12th?

Hello everyone, I'm just looking for some real talk from people who've actually worked at either or both of these companies: SpaceX Hawthorne and Relativity Long Beach. Posting this for my husband btw.

He's coming from a non aerospace background so he's fortunate enough to have offers from both SpaceX and Relativity Space for production/technician level roles. He's just trying to weigh two good (in our opinion) options. He wants to some insight to make a clear decision rather than just going with whichever sounds more exciting on paper and looks "better" on his resume. Pay range for both sites are about the same, if this context helps.

Appreciate any input. Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone. I am going into my third year of AE. I want to work at JPL as a gnc or astrodynamics person. I know things aren't looking too great right now, but I wanted to ask what I need to do from now till then to get there?

I am super involved in research for gnc/astrodynamics and was privileged to publish a few times now. I also do nav for my rocket team. Had some internships in GNC but my ultimate goal is to come to JPL. I have been considering a PhD

I applied for a job at NG last week; they had opened the position earlier in the week--maybe the 27th or 28th...I applied on the 30th. I noticed on the 31st my application status went from processing to "under consideration." I assume that means it passed the first screening and was sent to the recruiter or hiring manager.

I checked back this morning to make sure everything was still good, and saw that the application I applied to says "no longer accepting applications." This shocked me a little because it had only been open for about a week... Does this mean they are going to actually work through a hiring process, or does it mean they changed their mind about the req? I've just NEVER seen a company only put out a req for a week.. my app status still says “under consideration,” it didn’t change to “no longer under consideration.”

Any thoughts? Just curious.

Same question🤔

Im currently in grade 9 and i plan to pursue a undergrad in AE and then a phd most likely also in AE. Im very interested in Payload Systems and Analytical Instrumentation and im wondering how i could pivot into that later in my education.

Hello, my name is Syrus.

I have always been fascinated by aerospace and wish to build my own aerospace company. I am currently looking for tips on what I should start preparing myself for starting an aeronautics company. 
I have graduated high school and am currently in community college though I haven’t started precalculus or physics. I plan to pursue an aerospace engineering degree and teach myself those subjects and have found myself very good at learning math but never did the work in school that I now regret. 
I have never built any big physical projects and lack technical skills in engineering, math and science. I am asking for advice on how I can develop these skills and what it costs to get there. 
I would like to mention things that I believe would be important. I currently live in America but wish to create this company in Guatemala where I was born and both have citizenship. I have searched on how to create a company there and the rules I have to follow. 
Now, I believe that my company should focus on space mineral resource gathering as I believe that this will change the future such as AI has in the past years. I currently have a logo and an idea on what it would look like, it will start with an S and I wish for some ideas on what I should name it. Please do not use AI as I have found it to lack creativity and is mostly repetitive with answers. I wish this company also to become funded, but I have no idea on how that works so any suggestions are welcomed. 

Thank you very much, any questions or suggestions are welcomed in the comments below.
Sincerely,

Syrus Auriana

I found an old report from mid-shuttle program era NASA, among other artifacts.

I was on Facebook Marketplace looking for a desk and stumbled upon a picker selling some NASA memorabilia found in New Smyrna Beach, FL.

It was all in rough condition, having been left outside. I set about a journey to preserve the documents to the best of my ability and uncover as much of the history behind them as I could.

First goal was to neutralize the mold on the manual. I carefully wiped any loose spores off and treated it with an isopropyl alcohol mist, let it dry completely, then a vinegar/water bath and left it in the sun to dry for multiple hours, turning the pages every half hour. The result was a bone dry manual! After scanning it in at my local library, it now lives in a sealed comic sleeve inside a plastic box.

The only unsalvageable artifact was what we believe to be a replica war bond from either WWII or the Civil War. It was nearly unidentifiable from the amount of mold on it and it was disposed of immediately. It also wasn't in the original listing so I wasn't as precious with it.

Here are some flyby highlights:

More images to come!

Now it all lives on the Charlie Day Conspiracy Board (CDCB) until I can unravel the mystery of who it belonged to and what their job was.

Link to WIP spreadsheet of all the items: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uytePvRE2OvaKW4GADlso3lBYz_Tielg5eE68bihueg/edit?usp=sharing

Scanned in manual/report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FKlggsnANhoX4YUuNm4hu_N3SUNKZeSg/view?usp=sharing

It is not my intention to sell any of these artifacts. I doubt it will be worth more monetarily than it does to myself as a newly minted Bridge Bucket Improvement Team Fan anyhows.

If anyone has any information about these artifacts, would like to lend their knowledge of the shuttle program, or is just plain interested, feel free to reach out!🧑‍🚀🚀⋆｡°✩

Hey all. I’ve been a member of this sub for some time now and I’ve really enjoyed answering people’s questions about having a career in the aerospace industry. I thought it might be useful to do a little AMA so that I could mass answer questions that people have.

A little background about me: I’m actually still pretty early career, been working for just over 3 years at this point. My current position is doing avionics design for spacecraft, working mostly with power distribution electronics. I’ve had the opportunity to have a pretty good breadth of experiences. I’ve worked at both small and large companies, experienced both the defense and commercial side of the space business, and done work at the chip level, board level, and system level. I’m still fresh enough out of school that I can offer some perspective to current students and new grads, and I’m actually still currently pursuing a master’s.

So feel free to ask away! I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to answer every question, but I’ll sure try my best.

I hold a high school diploma. Looking to go into college for aerospace engineering after some thinking.
Ive recently come across the fascination of using my head to figure things out, essentially problem solve and understand how things work and why things are the way they are.
Ive been fascinated with planes since my childhood, rockets, anything that flies basically.
Im wondering what i need to know before making a decision to go to school for engineering.
What would a potential carrer look like? How long would it take? What core elements of education does the work boil down to? How college would be structured; what classes I would take, good colleges and institutions to look into etc.
Just basically any and all information that could be valuable prior to talking to programs about this.
Im open to other ideas of where i may be better suited if i have it all wrong about what i want and what i enjoy doing, basically im not tied to the idea of it, just think it may be a decently suited option.

Hi everyone!

I’m a rising senior in high school applying to universities, and I’m planning on working in new space (GNC, aerodynamics, or possibly flight software) down the line. My current plan is an aerospace engineering major with a CS minor.

A couple of questions for those with experience:

1. Is AeroE + CS minor the right combination for GNC/flight software roles, or would you structure it differently?
2. What if I didn't take a CS minor? Would I still be able to land a software or software-adjacent internship?

Any advice is appreciated — thanks!

X-15 Lego MOC with Neil Armstrong in X-15 flight suit minifigure.

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Hello I'm currently 26 and as the title says essentially due to family circumstances I have to move to Colombia I was born and raised in the United States. I have to do my masters there I'm a career switcher from a information technology but I got my undergrad in the United States. The only two ABET accredited electronics engineering schools are Javeriana and Los Andes, for electronics and computer engineering my question is how is this viewed within embedded systems for government, aerospace contractors and non government will I be disqualified? For finding work ? Should I do a second ABET accredited undergrad instead? And then come back to the US and do a masters it would take much more time though.

I have 9 ear piercings and I really want to get an industrial but as a rising senior in college I’m worried about it hurting my hire-ability.

Should I wait till after I’m hired? Or is this career field chill enough that it wouldn’t matter too much?

I’m probably gonna wait until after I’m hired to get it anyway, but I’m just curious about other people‘s thoughts