Get to know an Astroscale U.S. Intern: Griffin Dewey

Introduce yourself! Where did you grow up? 

I’m from Connecticut and I’ve lived there my whole life! 

What is your role at Astroscale? 

I’m a Proposal Operations Intern. My work varies day to day, but right now we have two proposals we are working on so I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with that. Because I have an engineering background, I’ve also been working with the Engineering Team. This gives me a nice integration between the business side and the actual technical stuff. 

Where do you go to college? What do you study? 

I go to the University of Virginia and I study Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Business. 

What originally sparked your interest in space? 

I’ve been really interested in space since I was little. My dad has always been into astronomy so when I was younger he would take me out at night and we would watch the stars. Also, I’ve always been STEM-oriented and so I’ve always really liked math and physics especially. This is what drove me towards aerospace.  

Why did you choose to intern at Astroscale? 

Last summer I had another internship at a really cool start-up company called Canopy Aerospace. One of my projects while I was working there was to research space debris and how it could impact what Canopy was working on. When I was doing this research, I came across Astroscale because addressing space debris is a huge part of what we do. After that, I think honestly, I just kind of became so obsessed with it. I loved Astroscale’s mission and it just seemed like such a cool place.  

What has been the highlight of your internship so far? 

The best part is just feeling like what I’m doing actually matters. Like, a lot of the time when you think about internship, you just think about getting coffee for people, running errands, and stuff like that. But I feel like a lot of the stuff I’ve done at Astroscale has actually been super important in the grand scheme of space sustainability. Being able to contribute my own ideas to proposals is a really cool feeling.   

What are you looking forward to in the upcoming weeks? 

The first big thing will be getting the SpEC proposals submitted, that will be really exciting. Also, I’m excited to meet all the other interns at the Intern BBQ! 

Who at Astroscale has been a great mentor to you and why? 

Andrew Benham, one of the project managers, has been amazing because he has met with me a lot to explain different projects and the more technical side of things. I’ve really appreciated getting to have that learning experience with him. Also, shoutout to Phil and Quinn because they’re awesome too!  

Advice for recent high school grads or potential interns?

The biggest thing is not to get deterred – keep going. I think I applied to over 50 internships and only heard back from four of them and only got offers from two of them. Honestly, I totally lucked out getting to work at Astroscale, but my main advice is to keep going, give yourself time, and don’t get deterred when you get a lot of no’s.

How do you spend your time outside of work? 

Since I’ve been in Colorado, I’ve been doing a lot of outdoorsy stuff. I’m staying with my sister and my family so I’ve been spending a lot of time with my nephew. In college I am a Varsity Squash player so I spend a lot of time playing sports and working out. I also spend a lot of time with my sorority and my friends.  

Star Wars or Star Trek? 

Probably Star Wars because I haven’t seen Star Trek…