“In 1985, as SSTL was beginning its journey, I was growing up in the West Country with a fascination for anything that moved, went fast, or had propulsion. I was always pulling things apart.. bikes, engines, go-karts.. just to see how they worked. Maths wasn’t my strong suit, but physics came naturally, and with some determined studying (and extra tuition), I earned a place at UCL to study planetary science with spacecraft systems.
After an Army scholarship, I completed a master’s in aerospace propulsion with rocket systems at Cranfield. That’s where my interest in rockets and space exploration really ignited. I even applied to NASA’s international graduate programme.. didn’t make the final round, but the fire was lit. So I built my foundations elsewhere: in mechanical engineering, subsea pipelines, and offshore operations.. complex, high-pressure environments that suited my love of systems thinking and global operations. I became a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and worked on some remarkable challenges, including being part of BP’s response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. I was on the third vessel to arrive and later spent three months in Houston’s crisis centre ‘Hive,’ helping develop real-time solutions with an incredible team of minds.
Later, I worked on megaprojects across the Indo-Pacific, then shifted from subsea robots to airborne threats, leading drone defence operations at Heathrow. That project, working with government and airport stakeholders, won two national awards from the Association for Project Management in 2020.
Now I’m back where it all began, propulsion and spacecraft, working on SSTL’s lunar communications satellites. Few companies in the world are sending hardware to the Moon. Being part of this mission is a privilege. My career has taken me from the deep sea to low Earth orbit and now cislunar space, and throughout, it’s been driven by a love of exploration, adaptability, and solving hard problems alongside brilliant people.”
Ben’s career path is refreshingly unorthodox.. but perfectly aligned with SSTL’s own journey over the decades: bold, versatile, and always pushing the boundaries. We’re lucky to have his kind of energy and experience as we aim for the Moon and beyond.