Juan Rodriguez brings a family legacy of engineering for space to Aerospace's Vehicle Autonomy and System Trust department (VAST). Always drawn to math and physics, Rodriguez also had the benefit of occasionally visiting JPL, where his father worked for many years.

"That kind of sparked little seeds in my life," he says in the latest Innovation Spotlight exploring Aerospace's newest employees.

Attending Cal State University, he joined the rocket club there, continuing his spaceward journey. After one of his colleagues completed an Aerospace internship, he applied and was accepted himself. Rodriguez eventually parleyed that into a full time staff position, and he now spends most of his time at the Collaborative Autonomous Vehicle Ecosystem lab, or CAVE.

"The big goal that we have right now for the CAVE lab is to develop a test bed where we'll eventually bring in customers to perform testing, especially for rendezvous proximity operations, docking maneuvers... we're going to use all our assets there to test it out here on the ground before we try it in space," he explained.

He enjoys the profusion of "genius people" he gets to talk to regularly, a sentiment his coworkers will certainly appreciate! You can hear more from Rodriguez about his work and experience at Aerospace in the full video.