Space Tech Leaders: Women Driving Industry Innovation

Women are making critical contributions to hard tech industries that have been historically dominated by men. The Women Redefining Tech and Space panel led off the conference with a discussion on the growth of the space industry, their personal journeys into the aerospace and defense sector, and how to distinguish yourself as a leader.

It was moderated by Dr. Anita Sengupta, a rocket scientist who founded and serves as CEO of Hydroplane. Panelists included Wendy Shimata, a space tech executive at Varda Space Industries, and Melanie Pittaluga, director of marketing and communications at Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing company, that builds small satellites for national security.

Dr. Anita Sengupta, Melanie Pittaluga, Wendy Shimata

(David Arellanes)

ON YOUR JOURNEY INTO AEROSPACE

Melanie Pittaluga: “It was not a predictable journey. In college, I studied business and textile and apparel management. I was dead set on being a fashion designer, except I was in an astronomy class with a retired NASA astronaut as a professor, who was a wonderful mentor. I was simultaneously taking a course on the science of textiles, studying spider silk, which is an incredible fiber. I’m a pretty creative person, but I’m really intrigued by science. I applied to an internship with NASA to work on spacesuits. It got me thinking about marrying these two things together. I didn’t become a fashion designer, but I entered the intelligence community. I went back to school for a master’s in strategic intelligence, specifically terrorism and transnational crime, which led to work for the State Department, but I was craving something creative and was a California girl at heart. There was an opening with Millennium Space Systems for their head of marketing and communications. Now I spend my days talking to engineers and technical teams, learning all about small satellites. From fashion to satellites, keep an open mind. You don’t know what your journey’s going to be.”

Wendy Shimata: “I’ve always just been kind of a space geek since I was a kid. I loved exploring what’s beyond our Earth. When I went to college, I was the only female in my entire major of applied physics and engineering. The 13-year-old girl who was on the robotics team at a small high school in Illinois could have never imagined being on stage talking about accomplishments of women in technology. When I graduated from college, there weren’t really startups. I worked as a guidance, navigation and controls engineer for about six and a half years with Hughes Space and Communications. In 2014, I had an old friend reach out about the SpaceX Dragon 2 program. SpaceX was still a very small company at the time, and I fell in love with the innovation there. I had the privilege of being the software lead for the crew of the Dragon 2 program. After, I joined startup Varda Space Industries. It was before we had designed and tested any space vehicles. We had a long journey to be able to reenter our first commercial spacecraft, but we were able to accomplish it. To be the first mission director on communications, to give the final go to reenter the spacecraft to land in Utah was just phenomenal.”

ON BRINGING MORE WOMEN INTO AEROSPACE

Pittaluga: “Tell your story, listen to stories, seek out stories. By sharing our stories, we can help inspire others. Maybe there’s a fashionista in here right now that might be thinking about aerospace. Try something that you don’t feel prepared to try. There are many times that I was sitting at the table, and I was the only woman, which is not uncommon. Find a company that will build a community to inspire women. At Millennium, we have an organization called Supporting Women in Millennium that hosts ‘lunch and learns’ and guest speakers that advocate for more women in STEM fields.”

Shimata: “I’ve often felt like I’m not qualified or good enough to be in the room. I’ve had to force myself to show up, which builds trust and credibility. You have to build upon your integrity, and then people start to trust you with projects, and it snowballs from there.”
Sengupta: “I actually started my own company for this reason. There’s almost no women who are starting aerospace companies. Five years in, we’re still going strong. We are part of the solution, and it applies not just to aerospace. A woman leading the change is the best way to get more women involved.”

ON YOUR CURRENT PROJECTS

Shimata: “As the costs of space launches has dropped and the cadence has increased, it has been lucrative to look at what can be enabled, now that we have easy access to space. We have a vehicle that has been flying in space with a pharmaceutical manufacturing payload, an experiment that we have on board, and we’re the first commercial reentry company to actually retrieve the products. It’s a very new and novel thing.”

ON EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES

Pittaluga: “When I started in the intelligence community, I was inundated with global information that I had to package up and deliver to pretty high members in the government to make important decisions. I learned to digest the information very quickly and pick out key parts. I am not the technical expert on small satellites, but my superpower allows me to sit with the engineers and the technical teams and look at what they’re talking about from an outsider point of view. The number one thing I think about is how do you listen, learn, ask questions and then try to think about it in a way to repackage and deliver a message, a product to a customer in a way that might be digestible for them.”

Shimata: “I would say it’s exceedingly difficult, but it gets easier over time. I’ve told myself and have had cheerleaders around me tell me to keep persisting. In science and STEM fields, a lot of times, the technical work speaks for itself. Look at the data together to see what it tells us, and then that builds credibility. We start peeling away those biases such that we can appreciate ideas for what they are. That’s what we want to shine. It’s not male versus female.”

Moderator: Dr. Anita Sengupta

Chief Executive Officer | HYDROPLANE LTD.
Dr. Anita Sengupta is a rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, entrepreneur and commercial pilot who for over 20 years has been developing technologies that have enabled the exploration of Mars, asteroids and deep space. She is founder and CEO of Hydroplane Ltd, which is developing a Hydroplane fuel cell-based powerplant for Aerospace applications, based in Los Angeles. She is also a research professor of astronautical engineering at the University of Southern California.

Melanie Pittaluga

Director & Head of Marketing and Communications | MILLENNIUM SPACE SYSTEMS
Melanie Pittaluga is the director & head of marketing and communications at Millennium Space Systems, where she oversees and drives all aspects of marketing, brand and communications. Founded in 2001, Millennium builds small satellites for national security, delivering high-performance solutions quickly across a range of Earth orbits. Before joining the aerospace industry, she spent more than a decade in the national security community, holding leadership roles at the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of State and within the Intelligence Community, where her work focused on international relations and strategic engagement. Her career has been dedicated to connecting missions to meaning, using storytelling to bridge technology, defense, and diplomacy.

Wendy Shimata

VP of Autonomous Systems | VARDA SPACE INDUSTRIES
Wendy Shimata is the vice president of autonomous systems at Varda Space Industries, which makes novel pharmaceuticals in orbit. In 2015, she joined SpaceX as the technical responsible engineer for life support and thermal software systems. Her leadership as the flight software lead for Crew Dragon’s first two demonstration flights was instrumental in the success of these historic missions. In 2021, Shimata joined Varda Space Industries. She holds a B.S. in applied and engineering physics from Cornell University and an M.S. in astronautical engineering from USC. In her free time, she loves going on hikes and exploring national parks, and trying new recipes with her five year old daughter (who is training to be a mission director).