As part of the Alumni Connections program, Emily Tirado Rupolo, a 2015 Bayport-Blue Point High School alumni, joined Mr. Murphy and Ms. Haviters' Engineering in the Physical World classes remotely from Texas to discuss her experience working at SpaceX.
She shared the challenges she faced early in her college career and how, with her parents' support, she succeeded in landing her first job as a design engineer in launch promotion in Cape Canaveral, Florida, shortly after graduating from SUNY Maritime. Emily was recently promoted to lead engineer and relocated to Brownsville, Texas, where she now leads a team of engineers.
Throughout her engaging presentation, Emily showed videos of rocket design and construction, provided insights into the various vehicles used by SpaceX, and offered an overview of Starlink. She also explained SpaceX's goal to bring internet connectivity to outer space and eventually travel to Mars. Emily emphasized that failure is an opportunity to refocus by sharing a video highlighting several of SpaceX's unsuccessful rocket launches since its founding in 2002.
