K2 Space Corporation

A lot of people associate space with their childhood - at K2 Space Corporation we hope to help make those childhood dreams a reality. We're excited to introduce the next member of our team, Kyle Krueger, our Senior Satellite Manufacturing Engineer, who comes to us from Shoreline Bespoke Vehicles, Frontier Aerospace Corporation, and Virgin Orbit. Tell us about yourself Kyle I graduated from UC Davis in 2016 with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. I’ve always loved to tinker with taking things apart, put them back together, and improve on them. Solving challenging problems in engineering and manufacturing is a cathartic activity for me. Getting to work on building out the manufacturing capabilities for a brand new spacecraft bus with K2 will be both challenging and rewarding. I am looking forward to helping our customers deliver new and interesting payloads into space. What was your first memory of space? My dad had a telescope that was passed down from my grandfather. He would set it up in our front yard from time to time and train it on the moon or planets. One night in particular he called me outside to look through the telescope and he had it pointed at Saturn. I remember seeing the rings so clearly and being struck with the wonder of the planets and space. What space application are you most excited for moving forward? The earth observation industry is expanding rapidly. EO has helped track land usage, crop growth, wildfire movement, among others. We are still at the beginning of what we will find and do with EO. Being able to integrate bigger and more useful payloads to service EO is an exciting opportunity.

A lot of people associate space with their childhood - at K2 Space Corporation we hope to help make those childhood dreams a reality. We're excited to introduce the next member of our team, Radina Yanakieva, our Vehicle Operations Engineer, who comes to us from SpaceX. Tell us about yourself Radina I was born in Bulgaria and immigrated to New York City with my parents when I was 2 years old. I attended Georgia Tech where I studied aerospace engineering and spent most of my free time working in a cubesat lab. In college, I had the opportunity to design, build, and launch a cubesat through my lab, and complete internships at JPL supporting the Mars 2020 program, and SpaceX supporting the Starship program. After graduation, I started working full time at SpaceX on Starship. Outside of work I enjoy snowboarding, trying new restaurants, and visiting amusement parks. I recently became a dog person when I rescued my dog, June, so a lot of my free time is now being spent with her! What was your first memory of space? When I was younger, the only TV my parents did not put time limits on were educational channels, so I grew up binge watching documentaries. I remember watching one about space, but it was presented as if astronauts were visiting the other planets. I was too young to understand that it was a dramatization so I spent YEARS thinking interplanetary travel was a common occurrence. Learning that only probes and rovers had traveled to other planets changed my entire world view and started me down the path to where I ended up today. What space application are you most excited for moving forward? With decreased satellite and launch costs, I'm excited for more interplanetary science missions. I look forward to a future in which missions of the same class as Perseverance, Europa Clipper, and the James Webb Space Telescope are more commonplace!

A lot of people associate space with their childhood - at K2 Space Corporation we hope to help make those childhood dreams a reality. We're excited to introduce the next member of our team, Joshua Friedman, our Satellite Mechanical Engineer, who comes to us from Rocket Lab. Tell us about yourself Josh My background is in mechanical engineering and I've worked in 3D printing, Shock Physics, and Satellite Separation systems. I'm originally from New York and recently moved to LA from DC. In my free time I like to hike, read, eat, and hang out with my two cats. What was your first memory of space? As a kid, I always loved looking at the stars at night. I liked to watch the magic school bus episode where they went to each of the planets and I was always excited for the annual school field trip to the American Museum of Natural History where I could see the giant meteor. What space application are you most excited for moving forward? I'm really excited about all the exoplanets we are discovering and have yet to discover. It's so cool to see all the different kinds of worlds out there.

A lot of people associate space with their childhood - at K2 Space Corporation we hope to help make those childhood dreams a reality. We're excited to introduce the next member of our team, August Soderberg, our Software Engineer, who comes to us from Parallel Systems. Tell us about yourself August I grew up in Palo Alto, California but it wasn’t until I started my undergraduate at Brandeis University that I found my love for software engineering. I studied applied mathematics and computer science and spent a lot of time working in the Brandeis Autonomous Robotics Lab. That experience eventually led to my writing of an undergraduate thesis as well as an opportunity to join MIT Driverless and work on autonomous race cars. After university I joined Parallel Systems to work on battery electric autonomous freight rail vehicles. I learned so much during my 2.5 years at Parallel and am incredibly excited for all of the learnings to be had in the next phase of my career at K2. Outside of work I enjoy playing golf, ultimate frisbee, squash, as well as a smattering of different instruments. What was your first memory of space? There is an old board game that my family would play when I was very young called Mars 2020 (originally released in 1998). Each player attempts to navigate their spacecraft through higher and higher orbits with the eventual goal of landing on Mars. The progress of each spacecraft is hindered by various mechanical malfunctions which can only be remedied by correctly answering trivia questions about space. As the youngest player in my family, I would often have certain trivia advantages given to me, such as multiple choice options on open ended questions, which allowed me to frequently win the game against my elder opponents. Some people might call this cheating… I think this is just resourceful gamesmanship. What space application are you most excited for moving forward? I am interested to see how the increasing development of space technology continues to reduce scarcity with respect to data, energy, or natural resources. These applications seem to present the possibility of a major shift for the better in how our world operates, and I think that is really exciting.

The K2 team has arrived in Chicago for the Society of Women Engineers conference - WE24: Together We Rise. We believe a diverse team and diverse opinions are key to helping us make impossible missions possible. If you’re attending, stop by booth 1388 to meet Jesse Klekamp, Morgan Locandro, and Nicholas R..

A lot of people associate space with their childhood - at K2 Space Corporation we hope to help make those childhood dreams a reality. We're excited to introduce the next member of our team, Zachary Robertson, our Propulsion Test Automation Engineer, who comes to us from Colorado State University. Tell us about yourself Zach I recently graduated with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University. I did my research in the Colorado Electric Propulsion and Plasma Engineering lab on running a Hall thruster with a single power supply. I presented my findings at the International Electric Propulsion Conference and was awarded Best Paper of my session. With this experience and my interest in large industrial control systems, the opportunity to join K2 Space and implement a control system for a new high power electric propulsion testing facility was a perfect opportunity. Outside of work I love to ride my road bike and enjoy the outdoors. I can’t wait to ride around Southern California! I am also looking forward to living near the beach and maybe learning how to sail. What was your first memory of space? My first memory of space was from a family trip as a child to watch one of the last shuttle launches at the cape. I remember being at the beach and having to get out of the water for the launch. The roar of the solid rocket boosters was a feeling I will never forget. The rest of the weekend we stayed with my grandpa, who was on the red team during the launch of Apollo 11. His stories inspired me to follow in his footsteps and pursue a career in engineering and space exploration. What space application are you most excited for moving forward? Some of my favorite missions are the deep space probes like Cassini. It is incredible to learn more about our solar system and I can’t wait to see what we discover in future missions. I am also super excited to contribute to the engineering challenges that we will face in these endeavors especially in the challenges of nuclear energy and propulsion.

A lot of people associate space with their childhood - at K2 Space Corporation we hope to help make those childhood dreams a reality. We're excited to introduce the next member of our team, Daniel S., our Satellite Manufacturing Engineer, who comes to us from SpaceX. Tell us about yourself Danny After college I started my own drone company, then quickly found myself at SpaceX out of sheer enthusiasm and excitement. I never would have thought that chasing my dreams would land me in the space industry. At SpaceX I had the opportunity to support design and manufacturing for Falcon and Dragon, which helped surge our rate across vehicles and exposed me to the exciting challenges with building next-gen flight hardware. This opportunity led me to K2, where we are spooling up an early program and building out the next generation of satellites. What was your first memory of space? My earliest memories of space come from my uncle, who spent many years supporting space programs at Northrop Grumman before his retirement. My own introduction to engineering came through NASA Shuttle Lego sets and the various science projects he would bring me to work on, which helped grow both my skills and my passion for engineering and space. What space application are you most excited for moving forward? I am excited about the technologies in this industry that we haven't even heard about yet. SpaceX has done an amazing job reducing launch costs, and other companies will gradually follow suit. This will foster a new generation of space companies, like K2, that will change the world as we know it. From moon bases to mega-scale satellites, our expansion into the universe is going to be fascinating!

Today’s successful catch of the Superheavy booster represents an important step towards full reusability. Congrats to the team at SpaceX on the monumental achievement.

A lot of people associate space with their childhood - at K2 Space Corporation we hope to help make those childhood dreams a reality. We're excited to introduce the next member of our team, Adrian Aguilar, our Environmental Test Technician, who comes to us from SpaceX and Millennium Space Systems, A Boeing Company. Tell us about yourself Adrian I'm originally from North San Diego County and went to college in Orange County where I met my wife. We're the proud parents of our 2 year old son. In college I studied music, but still found myself fascinated by all things space. SpaceX gave me a shot as an apprentice in composites lamination. After BFR (RIP) was redesigned to use stainless steel (now Starship), I found a new home in avionics. Between SpaceX and Millennium Space Systems, I've learned a great deal about avionics test, manufacturing, and inspection and have had the honor of working with so many talented people. What was your first memory of space? When I was 6 years old, my parents took me to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. I remember enjoying astronaut ice cream and being in awe of all the amazing things we saw, including the longhorns on the tram ride, walking along a catwalk and watching a space shuttle test out its Canadarm. What space application are you most excited for moving forward? I’m most excited about affordable commercial and human spaceflight. I love the idea of human spaceflight being as common and safe as air travel is now. Just imagine a world where someone might casually say, "Oh me? I just got back from a week at the new lunar resort. Breathtaking Earth rises."

What if your next internship gave you the opportunity to build hardware powering massive 20kW, 1 ton+ spacecraft— spacecraft that could one day help explore every moon and planet in our solar system? At K2 Space that could be a reality. Summer 2025 intern applications are now open for our Mechanical, Electrical, Software, and GNC teams. K2 Space is a highly collaborative environment and our interns will work with mentors and other team members to execute complex projects while maintaining a significant level of ownership and autonomy. Check out our careers page to apply!