About Me

Greetings Earthlings ! 🙂

I am Smiti. I truly believe in living up to my name which literally translates to ‘smile’. I am from India and in 2020 I moved to Germany, where I currently live with my husband. I’m a space engineer by profession and my present job involves making sure that some European meteorological satellites, orbiting 800 km above the Earth’s surface, are oriented correctly and functioning well, in order to provide scientific observations and valuable data that helps with weather and climate monitoring down here on Earth. Since 2011 I am involved in the challenging field of spacecraft attitude dynamics and control. Having worked with satellites for more than a decade now, I have had the privilege of being engaged in different phases of satellite lifecycle like conception, design, feasibility studies, development, testing, integration, more testing, launch and early operations phase, routine operations and finally decommissioning and deorbiting i.e. literally from birth to death. 

Well this isn’t LinkedIn and I do have a life on Earth so I don’t want to keep blabbering about satellites on the ‘About Me’ page. If you want to read more about why I decided to call my blog “the drifting satellite” check out my first ever post: What’s with the name ? 

As a true Punjabi at heart, I adore food and also enjoy cooking. I love listening to music and I can memorize lyrics to many songs in different languages. I am a big fan of the German language and am presently trying to get better at it through practice. I love travelling and enjoy planning trips to near and far-off places. Once in a while, beaches are Ok but I am a mountain person at heart and love hiking. Reading is a hobby that I would like to grow into but unfortunately I have not been successful at it so far. I also love writing. I am not as regular with this blog and writing in general, as I would like to be, but I aim to write more about my travel tales and wandering thoughts. As a budding plant-mom I struggle endlessly to keep my green friends alive. I have spent the last 15 years away from the home I grew up in but in the process, I have learnt to love the places I have called home in all these years. My immediate family is spread across 4 continents but when we meet we make it special. I have a very limited circle of friends and am a true believer of “quality over quantity”. In the last few years I have started taking my physical and mental well-being more seriously and am striving to be the best version of myself. I am also guilty of being an obsessive overthinker and a master procrastinator.

Thanks for flying by my orbit. I will see you around!