Fault Protection Engineer, Blue Origin, Aerospace Engineer and Space System Researcher

Sophia Zaccarine, PhD, is a fault protection engineer for Blue Origin’s MK-1 lunar lander. Dr. Zaccarine received her PhD in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2024, M.S. and M.E. degrees from CU Boulder in 2022, and her B.S. in Engineering Physics with a minor in Applied Mathematics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. She has completed internships with Blue Origin, Sierra Space, and NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. Her doctoral research involved vehicle functional design for self-sufficient deep-space human-rated habitats using mixed-method qualitative and quantitative analysis of vehicle autonomy and self-sufficiency with an emphasis on environmental control and life support systems (ECLSS) maintainability. Her work at NASA involved traveling to Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (the northernmost year-round civilian settlement in the world) as part of the launch operations team to launch a pair of sounding rockets into the cusp aurora to observe atomic oxygen ionospheric outflow. This trip was documented in a NASA TV feature.  

Dr Zaccarine enjoys playing soccer, trail running, reading, painting, making music and volunteering in her community, and has recently become very interested in beekeeping and candle making. She represented CU Boulder, one season as a team captain, as a midfielder for the nationally ranked club soccer program for three seasons (Sko Buffs!) and is an avid fan of women’s soccer. Dr Zaccarine’s dream to work in the commercial spaceflight industry began as a child, looking at the Moon with her father. Her work in advocacy has been at the forefront of her mission since entering this career and she is always looking for ways to mentor and support younger engineers and scientists pursuing their dreams.