My name is Sarine Mardirosian, and I am a class of 2026 Columbia University student majoring in astrophysics and minoring in math. This summer, I was a FreeFlyer Software Engineering Intern on the Technical Support team working to create Sample Mission Plans for publishing on future FreeFlyer releases.

My previous experiences in software have mostly involved data collection and processing, but the FreeFlyer software engineering experience was very different. Building Mission Plans from scratch was a use of software I had never engaged with before, and it was deeply transformative to see how software is so tangibly used in aerospace.

I genuinely had so much fun coding for FreeFlyer this summer, and am immensely grateful to the FreeFlyer team for welcoming me and being so willing to nurture my interests. Even remotely, everyone on the team was eager to engage with me and one another, which created a collaborative, genuine, and meaningful work environment. It became clear that all the members of the FreeFlyer team care tremendously about what they do and the people they work with, which is reflected by the quality of their work. I am lucky to have been a part of such a team.