If there’s anyone who understands that the space industry is more than *just one thing,* it’s Josh Ingersoll.
The 26-year-old space enthusiast may be the senior manager of regulatory affairs at Astranis, a company that builds extra-small GEO broadband satellites, but he’ll be the first to tell you that it’s a job that requires a whole lot of different hats.
“I straddle the fine line between business, engineering, and policy while enabling a stellar team of space geeks like me to provide telecommunications to regions of the globe that have never been serviced like this before,” Ingersoll said.
Doing it all: Ingersoll’s background runs the gamut from systems engineering to space policy and everything in between. Now, as head of regulatory at Astranis, Ingersoll does it all.
“Need an FCC license drafted? Cool,” Ingersoll said. “Want an antenna CAD design modified to augment its RF parameters? I got you. Need someone to do a market analysis for a new product line? I’m your guy. Because of my multifaceted approach to space systems, I can consider the needs of other teams on the fly while working through issues.”
Building the space community: As if the jack-of-all-trades government affairs gig isn’t enough, Ingersoll spends his free time outside work helping other young professionals, aiming to spread the space gospel to other industries and to get more people involved in the space…space.
“Mentorship is the single most important thing we can do to better our industry,” Ingersoll said. “Supporting those people that have been historically marginalized by our predecessors will bring new ideas to solve our biggest problems and answer the fundamental questions that got so many of us into the industry in the first place; who are we and why are we here?”
