The key to creating a new mission is setting and meeting goals. Dave Rosenbaum, a Systems Engineer in the Systems Engineering and Integration Office, is helping his team reach the next mission milestones. He is currently the CLARREO Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) Instrument Manager.

With a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and 20 years of experience on various spaceflight hardware projects, Mr. Rosenbaum understands that organization of a new mission doesn't always go as planned, and there must be someone there to make the system flexible.

"Very often, circumstances require that the plan be adjusted in order to achieve any particular goal or milestone. None of this happens successfully without someone being responsible for working on a daily basis to make it happen."

Mr. Rosenbaum currently has his eye on successfully putting a feasible GNSS-RO Instrument concept together that demonstrates feasibility on the CLARREO observatory. Mr. Rosenbaum says that proper mission planning early on is critical, and is particularly important for a flight science instrument, as that tends to be the most technically and programmatically challenging aspect of a science mission.

Despite the step-by-step work that must be done, Mr. Rosenbaum appreciates the bigger plan he is working toward. "I am enamored with having the opportunity to work on a project in which I get to play a part in helping mankind understand the Earth better and provide information that will enable world leaders to develop sound policies regarding how to be good caretakers of the planet," he says.