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, Sarvesh Fotedar, our Satellite Mechanical Engineer, who comes to us from Intuitive Machines. Tell us about yourself Sarvesh I was born and raised in Texas, and recently moved to California to pursue my dream of working in the space industry. I obtained my bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas and recently graduated from Rice University with my master's degree. My latest internship was at Intuitive Machines where I had my first exposure to how the new space industry operates, and got a front-row seat to see the first American spacecraft to land on the moon in more than 50 years. What was your first memory of space? My first memory of space is from when my dad, who was working at Johnson Space Center, showed me a video of the last space shuttle launch before its retirement. I felt a mix of sadness that the shuttle would no longer be flying, but also hope for the future of spaceflight, especially with the upcoming Constellation program. What space application are you most excited for moving forward? After the difficulties communicating with a commercial spacecraft on the Moon during the IM-1 mission, I would love to see a constellation of satellites designed to enhance communication with spacecraft far beyond low Earth orbit. The amount of scientific information out there is massive, and new infrastructure will be needed to send it back to Earth.

Our CEO and co-founder Karan Kunjur recently attended the Brooke Owens Fellowship summit to celebrate our first Brookie, Davina Russell, and the other impressive Fellows selected for this year. It was inspiring to see the next generation of leaders in space come together, there is so much hope for our future space endeavors. We're thrilled K2 Space was selected to host a Brookie this year, and are committed to championing the success of the next generation of exceptional women and gender minorities in the aerospace industry.

Up next in our Summer 2024 Internship spotlight is Ian McKernan, our Electrical Engineering Intern! One month into his internship, Ian is already having a positive impact on our Avionics team at K2 Space! During his internship, Ian will be designing the PCBA that will distribute low voltage power and communications throughout our spacecraft. This is a critical functionality for the Mega bus, providing the backbone of the power and network architecture. Ian is a junior at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering.

In honor of National Intern Day, please join us in celebrating the first of our Summer 2024 Interns, Davina Russell! Davina is joining us through the Brooke Owens Fellowship. We’re excited to spotlight the amazing contributions she has already made as part of our Structures and Mechanisms team! Davina is responsible for developing a prototype for the solar array off-loader ground support structure. She successfully led a Design Criteria Review earlier this summer, and is on track to complete the prototype testing before her internship is completed. Davina is a senior at the University of Notre Dame pursuing a bachelor's in Aerospace Engineering and Industrial Design. The below photo shows Davina standing next to the K2 Space Bridgeport Vertical Mill in our Torrance HQ.

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, Paige DeRuyter, our Executive Assistant, who comes to us from Virgin Orbit and Secure Transportation. Tell us about yourself Paige I’m originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and have been living in SoCal for about 2 years, and loving it! I’ve been an administrator in various industries including aerospace, marketing, and transportation. In my freetime I love to be outdoors at the beach getting some sun, paddle boarding, or playing volleyball. I also am a proud dog mom to a 6 year old Chi-weenie named Jax. What was your first memory of space? I remember going camping in Yosemite every year as a kid, being able to see all the stars, and trying to identify constellations (even making up a few). What space application are you most excited for moving forward? I'm excited about using space to provide internet access to those who currently lack it. Connecting people from diverse backgrounds and allowing them better access to communication will bring new, insightful perspectives on the human experience.

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, Dennis Jones, our Head of Facilities, who comes to us from SpinLaunch, Virgin Orbit, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX. Tell us about yourself Dennis I have 20 years of Aerospace experience working at SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, SpinLaunch and a few other aerospace companies. I’m most proud of my 4 children; I have 3 daughters and 1 son that includes 2 year old twins. Raising them with my wife Dulce is amazing and we look forward to watching them grow to be great little humans. What was your first memory of space? When I was a kid, I remember camping and looking up at the stars, totally amazed by how huge space is. What space application are you most excited for moving forward? Space travel is what I'm most excited for. When I began my career in aerospace in 2004 there was a huge push for space travel innovation. I look forward to continued progress and hope that someday taking the family out on a space voyage is a normal weekend activity.

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, Akshay Finney, our Team Lead, Security and Compliance Engineer, who comes to us from Zoom, Text IQ, and Collective Health. Tell us about yourself Akshay I’ve been doing Cyber security work for almost a decade and was fortunate enough to build and iterate on exciting security programs at companies of all sizes. Most recently, leading a Security GRC Engineering program at Zoom. When I learned about K2 and their mission, I was in. This is my first voyage into the space industry and I couldn't be more excited! How often are you lucky enough to say say, “I get to work with some amazing people and put satellites in space” Outside of work, you can find me on a mat somewhere doing jiu jitsu and hanging out with my wife and our dog, Benji! What was your first memory of space? My first visit to JSC in Houston where I now live. Since then I’ve kept pace with a lot of space news such as Starship and Starliner launches - we live in exciting times! What space application are you most excited for moving forward? I'm being ambitious but, data centers an AI in space! The idea of a space based data center is compelling and exciting. I'm hoping we can overcome a lot of the technical and logistical challenges in the next few years.

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, Hector Delgado Marquez, our Satellite Mechanical Engineer, who comes to us from SpaceX. Tell us about yourself Hector I grew up in a small farm town in California's Central Valley with my parents, younger brother, and two younger sisters. My family is originally from Mexico, but settled in the small cow-dense town of Tulare, CA. Naturally, with a heritage of farming and being raised on a farm, I expected to follow in my father's footsteps and become a farmer. However, working hands-on at the farm sparked my interest in engineering. I attended Cal Poly where I studied astronautical engineering and concentrated on orbital mechanics. My experience at the Cal Poly CubeSat Lab enabled me to intern at places like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Air Force Research Laboratory, and eventually SpaceX. As an intern on SpaceX's Sensors Development team, I worked on pressure and temperature sensor development for the Falcon 9 and Starship. I eventually transitioned to the Ship Avionics team, where I designed hardware to support reentry telemetry via Starlink (enabling those cool reentry shots you saw during Flights 3 & 4) as well as designed robust thermal sensors used throughout Starship and Superheavy. Following Starship’s Flight-3, I embarked on my new chapter at K2 Space! In my free time, I enjoy trail running and camping as much as I possibly can! What was your first memory of space? In 7th grade science class we had the opportunity to design, build, and launch soda bottle rockets for a class experiment. I enjoyed the workshop so much that I spent my entire summer building and launching rockets on the farm using old sprinkler equipment and compressor parts we had lying around. Getting to quickly launch my prototypes and tweak my design is what ultimately sparked my interest and pointed me towards working on rockets and satellites (and maybe even riding on one someday!). What space application are you most excited for moving forward? I was a senior in college when the James Webb Space Telescope was launched and deployed, and having done some analysis on data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, I’m excited to see what scientific payloads our Mega and Giga class buses will enable!

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, Jasmine Hornbeck, our Satellite Mechanical Engineer, who comes to us from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Tell us about yourself Jasmine I was born in Twentynine Palms, California, spent summers in Japan, and grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. After college, I returned to California, now pursuing my passion for space exploration. I earned my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and started my career at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I love learning and collecting hobbies, aiming to be the ultimate renaissance woman. This means staying active, painting, writing, and connecting with people through fleeting interactions that enrich my life. I believe in trying everything once, which led me to sign up for a 10K in 2021 and eventually run my first marathon this year! What was your first memory of space? My dad, who passed away in 2018, loved asking us at dinner: “What are the three brightest objects in the solar system?” As a chronic overthinker, I’d hesitate before answering, “Sun, moon, Venus?” My mom would have me stare at the night sky on late drives home, saying it was good for the eyes. So I’d look up, trying to find the Sun, moon, and Venus. What space application are you most excited about moving forward? It’s an exciting time in the space industry with the development of Starship and more frequent launches. Efforts to make space greener, more accessible, and affordable are thrilling. I’m excited about innovative EDL and propulsion systems that could revolutionize landing on other planets. The idea of normal people like me being able to see the Earth from space, or complete a moonwalk also sounds really cool!

We're excited to see the successful Starship orbital launch and re-entry. The satellite we're building today, the Mega class satellite, is made to package 10 inside of a Falcon 9. It will fit 50 inside of a Starship. This is the mass abundant future we're moving towards - and today was an important step forward.