Fresh from a Mechanical Engineering master's degree at the University of the West of England, with experience at Airbus working on the A330neo programme, she arrived with plenty of enthusiasm but no spacecraft background. By her own admission, her application included a few Star Wars and Star Trek puns, and during her interview she famously suggested "drilling a hole in the spacecraft" as a way of dealing with pressure differences in space. The interview panel politely explained that the term she was looking for was a “pressure vent”.
Fortunately, we saw the potential.
Starting in the Mechanical Systems team, Lily worked on some of the earliest CarbSAR concepts before moving into propulsion, where she supported the launch of SSTL's S1-4 and NovaSAR satellites. She later spent time on secondment at the UK Defence Solutions Centre and supported the UK's Covid response as an Army Reservist during Operation Rescript.
Since returning from her defence secondment in 2020, Lily has been a key part of the Lunar Pathfinder programme, helping to develop a mission that will orbit the Moon and support the next generation of lunar exploration.
Alongside her engineering work, Lily has thrown herself into life at SSTL – supporting the Charity Committee, contributing to podcasts and articles, speaking at events and helping inspire future engineers.
From sketching early satellite concepts as a graduate to helping deliver a mission to lunar orbit, Lily's story reflects something that has always mattered at SSTL: giving talented engineers real responsibility early in their careers and backing them to succeed.