Rodrigo Centelles

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT RODRIGO CENTELLES

Exploration has always been part of human nature. Since the beginning of humanity, we have moved across the planet searching for food, safety, and opportunity. As Yuval Noah Harari describes in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, humans eventually settled with the rise of agriculture, but the instinct to explore never disappeared. Today there are teams dedicated to exploring the surface of the Earth, the depths of the oceans, and the vastness of space. I’ve always wanted to be part of that last group.I began my career in commercial human spaceflight supporting VSS Unity at Virgin Galactic as part of the technical operations and maintenance team. During my time there, I helped support six successful spaceflights, enabling private astronauts and research payloads to reach space.I later joined Blue Origin as a Launch Vehicle Engineer supporting separation, escape, and parachute systems on New Shepard at Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas. In that role I supported 13 flights, working alongside an incredible team to help safely send people and payloads above the Kármán line.Today I work as a Production Engineer for Stage 1 of New Glenn, supporting the manufacturing and integration of a heavy-lift launch vehicle designed to enable the next generation of space missions and help return humanity to the Moon. From supporting human spaceflight with Virgin Galactic, to launch operations on New Shepard, and now production on New Glenn, my career has been driven by the same goal: contributing to the systems that carry humanity further into space.