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Alinda Mashiku

Visiting Scholar Aerospace engineer and program manager, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific and religious freedom have always been in the minority… It will take such a small committed minority to work unrelentingly to win the uncommitted majority. Such a group may transform America’s greatest dilemma into her most glorious opportunity.
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Background

Dr. Alinda Mashiku is a NASA aerospace engineer and program manager at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where she leads the Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) program. In this role, she oversees collision avoidance support for all of NASA’s 70–100 uncrewed satellite missions, coordinating with the U.S. Space Force, commercial operators, and international partners to protect NASA’s multi-billion dollar spacecraft assets and the broader space environment.

Dr. Mashiku earned her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering (cum laude) from The Ohio State University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University, where her doctoral research focused on information measures for statistical orbit determination. She joined NASA Goddard in 2013 as a spacecraft navigation engineer, supporting missions including OSIRIS-REx and JWST, before advancing to lead CARA.

A recognized expert in space situational awareness, astrodynamics, and research methodologies for AI/ML applications in space operations, Dr. Mashiku has published widely, delivered keynote and invited talks globally, and holds an AWS Certified AI Practitioner credential. She is an AIAA Astrodynamics Technical Committee member, has mentored over a dozen graduate and undergraduate interns, and is the founding president of The Joule Foundation, a STEAM program for girls in Africa and the founder of ExcelliSpace LLC, an academic and early career resource and platform for STEM professionals. She is a recipient of multiple NASA Agency Honor Awards and the NASA Distinguished Award annually from 2018–2025.

For the 2026–2027 academic year, Dr. Mashiku joins MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics as an MLK Visiting Professor, hosted by Prof. Richard Linares and Prof. Danielle Wood from the MIT Media Lab.

Interests

Space sustainability, astrodynamics, LEO, collision risk, AI/ML, autonomous systems, space traffic management, conjunction assessment, orbit determination, constellation management, in-space servicing, public-private coordination, responsible autonomy, and space debris

Sample Work

  • Publication

    NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) Compendium for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Satellite Collision Avoidance

    A. K. Mashiku, L. Newman and D. Highsmith, “NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) Compendium for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Satellite Collision Avoidance,” 25th Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference, September 16-19th 2025.

  • Publication

    NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) Ground Systems, Software and Operations Infrastructure Cloud Implementation

    A. Durkin, A. Mashiku, A. Christopher, C. Lacy, H. Borwick, S. Magnusen, M. Tata, “NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) Ground Systems, Software and Operations Infrastructure Cloud Implementation,” 11th Annual Space Traffic Management Conference, Austin, TX, March 2025.

  • Publication

    Early Information Parameter-Set Analysis for Satellite Close Approaches using Machine Learning

    B. Robertson and A. Mashiku, “Early Information Parameter-Set Analysis for Satellite Close Approaches using Machine Learning,” AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, Big Sky (VIRTUAL), 2021.

  • Publication

    Prediction satellite close approaches using statistical parameters in the context of artificial intelligence

    Mashiku et al., “Prediction satellite close approaches using statistical parameters in the context of artificial intelligence,” 29th AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, August 11th-15th 2019, Portland, ME.

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