Seminar by Airbus Space UK for International Women’s Day11 March 2026, CAGB 50014.00-16.00 (one hour discussion followed by a reception in CAGB 649)
From concept to cosmos: aligning mission objectives with system performance in the spacecraft development lifecycle
The engineering of a modern spacecraft is a high-stakes, multidisciplinary endeavour that must balance ambitious scientific goals with rigid resource constraints. This talk provides an overview of the end-to-end spacecraft development process, tracing the evolution of a mission from its earliest conceptual stages to final orbital performance.
Lydia Cabezudo Carrascal is Lead Principal Engineer at Airbus Defence & Space. She has a master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and has been working as a structural Engineer in the Aerospace industry for the past 18 years. Her expertise is centred around structural analysis, simulation and optimisation of spacecraft structures. She’s also a member of the NAFEMS Steering Committee in the UK. Currently, Lydia is leading a collaborative project with European Space Agency and the SI&HM group at the department of Aeronautics, Imperial in developing structural Digital Twins for Spacecraft applications.
Rachel Keller is a Principal Mechanical Engineer at Airbus Defence & Space.She has an MEng degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College and joined Airbus on the graduate scheme in 2015. She has worked across various disciplines within the mechanical engineering domain including equipment stress, design office, mass properties, and spacecraft dynamic analysis. She specialises in vibro-acoustics and microvibrations.