Space-Careers history

Space-Careers was created by Pierre Oppetit in 2004. Pierre's own space career started over 35 years ago when he joined Intelsat's Spacecraft Program Office in Palo Alto, California as a test engineer. There he monitored and followed up the integration and tests (I&T) of the Intelsat V series of spacecraft at the Ford Aerospace (now Space Systems/Loral) plant.

Four years later, he returned to his native France as the I&T manager for the Eurostar programme with Matra Marconi (now Airbus) in Toulouse. At the completion of the Eurostar test program, he moved on to satellite operations and developed the first Eurostar operating procedures.

Pierre's next job was with Inmarsat in London, where he managed the Launch and Early Operations (LEOP) contract awarded by Inmarsat to the French Space Agency CNES to launch its second generation of spacecraft. For its third generation, Inmarsat decided to acquire the capability of launching its own spacecraft, and Pierre was chosen to lead that project. This culminated in five successful launches for which he acted as Mission Director.

Pierre then embarked on a new challenge and managed the implementation of an intranet dedicated to the Inmarsat satellite operations. This intranet which provides online spacecraft documentation, flight operations procedures, flight dynamics data, scheduling information and live telemetry was a valuable operational tool at Inmarsat.

Following this, Pierre combined his expertise on satellite launch and operations and internet experience working as a consultant, particularly for the aerospace industry.

After 13 years in the UK, Pierre went back to Toulouse where he was, until 2004, International Business Development Manager for the Space Sector of Capgemini.

Pierre is an "STK certified" rocket scientist and a member of the Society of Satellite Professionals InternationalPierre was also involved in the founding of the Aerospace Valley cluster of enterprises.