Profile
Nikki Antoniou
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About Me:
I am a married mum of two (aged 4 and 6) and live in Surrey. I’m a spacecraft engineer 🛰️📡🪐 during the day and in my free time I love going to the gym, roller skating and spending time with my kids. 🛼🏋🏻♂️🛝
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I’ve been roller skating since I was about 10 (quad skates) where I got up to grade 5 in my artistic roller skating grades with my club. But now I skate only for fun. It’s good practice for skiing though, and I am currently learning to ski as my husband is a keen winter sports fan and wanted to learn as my kids do.⛷️❄️⛄🏂🏻
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My pronouns are:
She/her
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My Work:
I’m a Spacecraft Mission Systems Engineer, which means I come up with the design for satellites and plan how to use them for customers. I work on satellites for observing the Earth and trying to reduce the amount of debris in space.
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I’ve been working in the space industry for over 17 years. I have worked on lots of missions including one that is going closer to the sun than ever before.
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My Typical Day:
🚗 7am breakfast followed by school run for my kids
📨 8.30am Start the day
👩💼🧑💼👨💼 Check my team are ok
📞 Call up other engineers to get their inputs
💻 Do some design work
🍱 12pm Lunch!
📝 Help others with their designs
🤝 Have some meetings with projects
🚗 5pm Finish and go pick up the kids
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👩💼🧑💼👨💼 Check my team are ok
I manage a small team of engineers who all work on the design of future Earth Observation satellite missions and payloads.
📞 Call up other engineers to get their inputs
I work on a number of projects at any one time and need to check in on them and plan what we will address next.
💻 Do some design work
Typical design work for a mission concept designer is planning the satellites size, shape and capabilities, and where in space it will be orbiting.
📝 Help others with their designs
Reviewing other engineers’ work is important to make sure we haven’t made any mistakes.
🤝 Have some meetings with projects
It’s very important when you design systems to get inputs from all the smaller pieces of that system regularly so it all works together.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
Use it to create a number of space education kits for schools, including water rockets, printed posters and activity sheets, to help increase the long term impacts of STEM talks on careers in space.
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Education:
I started secondary at Hawley Place School (Camberley, Surrey) on scholarship in 1999.
I then went to Farnborough 6th Form College in 1999, followed by Imperial College in 2002-2005 for university.
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Qualifications:
I studied 8 GCSEs and 4 IT qualifications at school.
I then studied 5 A-Levels (Maths, Further Maths, Media Studies, Physics and General Studies) at college.
I then studied for my BSc in Physics at university.
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Work History:
I’ve worked at Airbus Defence and Space for over 17 years now, moving around the systems engineering areas within Earth Observation, Science and Navigation. This included 10 years working for Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), an Airbus subsidiary in Surrey.
Before that I did the following jobs as a student:
⚪ Hairdressers Shampoo Girl
⚪ Retail Assistant
⚪ Accounts Assistant
⚪ Army Cadet Instructor
⚪ Bar Staff
⚪ DJ
And these ones were after graduation:
⚪ Fashion Marketing Assistant
⚪ EPOS Systems Engineer
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Current Job:
My job is now the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Team Leader for future UK satellite missions for Airbus Defence and Space.
This means me and my team work on designing future Earth Observation satellite missions for the UK.
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Employer:
Airbus Defence and Space is one of the largest global satellite companies, and employs many thousands of people within the UK.
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
I was thinking about becoming an RAF Officer
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Sometimes for getting easily distracted
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I'd start a small craft business
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Millencolin (Swedish punk band)
What's your favourite food?
Katsu Chicken
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
A live-in nanny, a live-in chef and a spa in my house
Tell us a joke.
Knock knock! Who's there? Boo! Boo who? There's no need to cry it's only a joke!
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