Wisdom From The Women Leading The Space Industry, With Coralie Adam Of KinetX
An Interview With David Leichner
Never be weary of asking a question. Even when you think you know the answer, calling upon the expert to say it in their own words can be so valuable to getting everyone on the same page. It can lead to new ways of thinking and is often the cause of major breakthroughs.
As a part of my series about “Women Leading The Space Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Coralie Adam.
Coralie Adam leads the multi-mission Optical Navigation team at KinetX Aerospace, where she has worked since 2011. She holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois, and an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado. During her 12 years at KinetX, Coralie has had lead roles on the navigation teams for NASA’s New Horizons, OSIRIS-REx, Lucy, and OSIRIS-APEX missions. In addition to leading the OSIRIS-REx optical navigation subsystem from development through sample collection, she co-convened the scientific investigation of Bennu’s active particle ejection phenomena. Coralie is currently the deputy Navigation Team Chief on NASA’s Lucy mission, and a navigation lead and science co-investigator on the OSIRIS-APEX extended mission to asteroid Apophis.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the space industry?
I’ve always been pulled toward exploration, first in the form of archaeology and then eventually astronomy in high school, around the time when the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image was released. There were thousands of galaxies in this one picture, which only represented a speck of the sky, and I was floored by that. It really made me realize how much we don’t know about our universe. This whole industry is so ripe for learning and exploring and contributing to the expansion of collective human knowledge.
So contributing to space science was the guidepost I set in high school and then used it to evaluate all my career and educational decisions. I didn’t know exactly what form it would take, but now I like to tell this story to students because a lot of them are so focused on choosing a major, naturally. I suggest they define a higher level guidepost that considers what big problems or mysteries exist in the world today that they want to contribute to solving someday. There are so many different backgrounds and skill sets required for solving the world’s biggest problems.
Can you share the most interesting story that’s happened to you since you began your career?
It was just a few days after inserting the spacecraft into orbit around Bennu for the first time — a major navigation milestone and spaceflight record-setting feat. After years of analysis and simulation, the OSIRIS-REx approach and orbit insertion went astoundingly smoothly and we captured into the precise orbit we had hoped to. Not more than a few days later, a team member noticed an unexpected cluster of ‘noise’ in the long exposure navigation images, near the limb of the asteroid and moving from image to image. We knew it wasn’t a star cluster. So, was it an artifact on the sensor, or material coming off the spacecraft, or material coming off the asteroid? Was the spacecraft at risk?
My optical navigation team quickly built new methods to track these particles moving across the images to determine the size and speed of the objects and reconstruct where they were coming from. It turns out these millimeter-to-centimeter sized particles were in fact coming from the asteroid, and fortunately their velocities were slow enough to not pose any harm if they came in contact with the spacecraft. We proceeded with our proximity operations plan and added a new science investigation to routinely look for events like these. Over the course of the next year or so, we observed dozens of these “active asteroid’ events, some releasing hundreds of particles, and other times only observing a few dozen. It was really cool to contribute to convening and investigating this new space phenomenon, and now I’m responsible for looking for the same activity at asteroid Apophis when OSIRIS-APEX arrives.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think these can help people in the future?
We’re working on a lot of navigation autonomy, so putting all of what we do on the ground onboard missions. As the computer processors that are qualified for spaceflight improve, we can put more and more of our image processing capabilities onboard the spacecraft.
I’m really excited for OSIRIS-APEX, which is the extended mission of OSIRIS-REx, that will rendezvous with a famous asteroid named Apophis shortly after the asteroid has a close encounter with Earth in 2029. I was invited to be a science co-investigator on that mission in addition to my role on the navigation team, which was a full circle moment for me personally, as I’ve always wanted to contribute directly to the science of missions. I’m responsible for looking for rocks and dust that might be pulled off the surface from Earth’s tidal forces, and investigating whether Apophis is an active asteroid like the phenomenon we discovered at Bennu.
And from a navigation perspective, OSIRIS-APEX is going to be even more challenging than OSIRIS-REx because the asteroid is smaller, more oddly shaped, and tumbling unlike Bennu, which was more like a spinning top. We’ll spend up to two years characterizing Apophis to the same precision we did at Bennu, but in lieu of collecting a sample we plan to stir up the regolith by firing the spacecraft thrusters just a few meters above the surface. We’re going to continue to push the state-of-the-art at Apophis with novel solutions to new challenges in astrodynamics.
What are three things that most excite you about the space industry?
I’m very excited that the frontier of commercial spaceflight is finally here. I feel like it took a while to really get started, but now there are so many companies that are setting their sights on the moon, Mars, and beyond, and we’re fortunate to be involved in that. The expansion into the cislunar domain is unstoppable at this point and it’s great to be involved.
The future NASA planetary exploration missions are evoking a lot of anticipation, as well. I’m excited about Lucy reaching the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, and the launch of DAVINCI which will unlock more secrets about Venus. Exploring Venus, our neighbor that historically hasn’t gotten as much attention as Mars, has been a long time coming and the community is buzzing about it.
The prospects for planetary defense and some of the dedicated missions that have been investing in exploration and technologies related to asteroid deflection are something we can all be excited about, too. Asteroids have always posed a threat to Earth, so the more we can learn and prepare, the better.
What are three things that concern you about the space industry? Can you explain? Is there anything that can be done to address those concerns?
The sustainability of the cislunar ecosystem is certainly something that needs to be addressed. Everyone wants to make their way there, but who is coordinating and running interference? Is there a market for all of the activity and efforts in building the cislunar space, or will it really only be used for government initiatives? The commercialization of cislunar is something we all need to come to understand better.
Planetary exploration funding will also need to be considered. Budgets are constrained, missions are being delayed, and routines are nonexistent. The New Frontiers and Discovery class missions were supposed to be selected on a regular cadence every three or four years. The solicitation schedules for both programs are unknown right now, which is causing great concern among the planetary science community because there’s no telling when the next opportunity will be. And mission teams typically form well ahead of an expected announcement because designing a mission takes a lot of time and iteration.
The workforce pipeline is also challenging, with so many space companies hiring. 10 or 15 years ago it was difficult to find a job in the industry, and a lot of people who were studying aerospace ended up taking jobs in other industries. Now there is a high demand for mid-career engineers and few to go around. But it’s a great time to get involved at the entry-level, and that gap will fill in as young engineers gain more experience.
Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?
The ratio seems to get better with every new mission I work on. It went from around 10% women in my undergrad class to around 25% on my first mission, and I believe OSIRIS-REx was approaching 50%. I look around the room and am encouraged by how many brilliant women I’m working alongside.
I feel very fortunate to have not experienced many challenges being a woman in STEM, especially considering the unique opportunities it gave me. But I recognize some segments of industry and corporate cultures can be slower to change, and it’s going to take patience and perseverance to bring the industry towards equality for all.
What are the biggest challenges faced by women in the space industry that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?
While I cannot speak for everyone, I have felt fortunate in the way that being a woman in STEM has afforded me opportunities, rather than challenges, that I am extremely grateful for. If you seek advantages to your specific situation, such as scholarship and mentorship opportunities, you’re likely to find ways to give yourself a leg up.
What are your five leadership lessons I learned from my experience as a woman in STEM and why?
Communication is key. Whenever I am asked what the hardest part of my job is, I think students are surprised to hear my answer isn’t about the technical aspect. All of the best, most effective teams I’ve worked on have been successful because of good communication and trust. It’s something I put a lot of energy into as a leader, and it pays dividends.
Never be weary of asking a question. Even when you think you know the answer, calling upon the expert to say it in their own words can be so valuable to getting everyone on the same page. It can lead to new ways of thinking and is often the cause of major breakthroughs.
Empathetic leadership makes for happy employees. I have found that cultivating an environment within my team that emphasizes care and good will towards one another is one of the biggest reasons for our camaraderie and success.
Work towards the common goal, always. Oftentimes KinetX is just one partner among many on a mission, but what keeps us moving in the right direction is that there is always a very clear mission objective. It isn’t institutionally driven, it isn’t financially driven, it’s exploration and science driven. So even if we all come from different backgrounds, different places, we all have a common goal that we can return to even if conflict or problems do arise.
Successful leadership requires flexibility. Working in operations on challenging space missions requires some amount of rigidity in working towards a common schedule of milestones, while also being flexible to account for unexpected delays or technical roadblocks.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
A movement that I’ve taken to action in my own yard is planting native plants. It’s brought me a lot of joy to watch the deep rooted plants bloom, attract, and feed so many unique pollinators. They say action starts at home, and I think this is a wonderful way to help protect and restore local ecosystems that are under ecological threat.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a person you’re grateful towards who helped you to get where you are? And can you share a story about it?
There are so many people who have supported me along the way, it’s hard to single out just one. I will however call out an institution that significantly impacted my career path. The Adler Planetarium provided a summer program for a cohort of high school students to do real astronomy research, and it was there that I was first introduced to asteroid astrometry and scientific telescopic imaging, and at age 16 had contributed to the discovery of a ‘dead’, or non-active, comet. I recently returned to Adler for the first time since high school, and had a full circle moment with my proud family watching a planetarium show highlighting the discoveries made by my first mission, New Horizons.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
About The Interviewer: David Leichner is a veteran of the Israeli high-tech industry with significant experience in the areas of cyber and security, enterprise software and communications. At Cybellum, a leading provider of Product Security Lifecycle Management, David is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategy and managing the global marketing team that forms the foundation for Cybellum’s product and market penetration. Prior to Cybellum, David was CMO at SQream and VP Sales and Marketing at endpoint protection vendor, Cynet. David is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Technology College. He holds a BA in Information Systems Management and an MBA in International Business from the City University of New York.
