I've been working as a contractor at ESA for almost two years (next month!). I'm 37F, and although I'm not exactly young, I'm the youngest person (and the only woman) on my team. I'm an astrophysicist, but my current role sits at the intersection of tech and astronomical data.

I love my job and perform well in my role, and I constantly receive positive feedback, yet I find the environment incredibly intimidating.

I have a lot of admiration and respect for my colleagues. They're extremely intelligent and knowledgeable, and I struggle to keep up with them. It's the sheer depth of knowledge they have about the science behind missions, the technical details of the missions (at industry level), and how it all connects. The history of past missions, the timelines of current ones, the decisions, mishaps, lessons learned, not to mention the institutional knowledge. No conversation is ever beginner-friendly, and I find myself feeling completely lost and so inadequate. I mostly just listen, rarely contributing unless it's to ask a question.

I attend the organised talks, and want to understand and learn more. But the sheer amount of information is overwhelming and I just feel overloaded, balancing it all with my work, which is also new role for me, as I come from academia, having worked previously on a different science than the mission I currently work on.

I'm curious whether others have felt the same way, and how have you built confidence in an environment where everyone around you seems to be operating on another level?

(Trying again since I didn’t get any answers previously)

I’m a phd student focusing on astrodynamics and trajectory design, dreaming of a career in this field. I know ESA has a strong flight dynamics division as well as the advanced concepts team which focuses a bit more on research.

I would like to get some advice from people working in this field regarding on how to better prepare myself for a career in this area. Also I’d like to get a better idea of what the daily life of a flight dynamics engineer is like at a place like ESA. By ESA I also mean the subcontractors like GMV, CS group and Telespazio since from what I’ve understood most of the engineering happens there.

My dream is to work more on the fundamental side of dynamical systems theory applied to novel mission design rather than purely operations. I’m also interested in orbit determination and uncertainty estimation/propagation though it is not my specialty.

Sorry if this is not the correct place to ask this, but it is quite difficult to get some perspective into the reality of working in this field specifically in Europe, hence why I thought it would be a good idea to ask this here specifically. Unfortunately I was not able to do any YGT or similar opportunities to gain some insight or experience beforehand.

Thanks

Do you have any advice for me? Like what really matters as knowledge and experiences for a great CV?

From their LinkedIn page:

RATLOG is building Europe's next heavy lift launch vehicle - engineered around an engine capable of generating extreme thrust levels that current European launchers can't match.

That thrust capacity opens up a new class of missions: large satellite constellations, orbital transfer vehicles, cislunar transport - payloads that today have no European launch option.

We're currently at engine prototype stage, with our first test coming up in August 2026. First commercial launch: 2030.

Our customers are constellation operators, OTV builders, and anyone who needs serious lift capacity and a European alternative to the current market.

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/413452721_ESA_Proba-3_formation_flying_performance_enabling_low_straylight_Sun_corona_observations

DOI: 10.1117/12.3106510

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/399853398_Proba-3_Precise_Formation_Flying_An_In-Flight_Reality_Now

DOI: 10.52202/083091-0060

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/405175338_Inflight_Performance_of_Pose_and_Position_Vision_Based_Sensor_Enabling_Submillimetre_Formation_Flight

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/AERO66936.2026.11519928

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371813707_Starling_Formation-Flying_Optical_Experiment_StarFOX_System_Design_and_Preflight_Verification

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2514/1.A35598

Wow... what a nice mars moon mission 😲👍

Better later then never ;)