---
title: "Astrodynamics Engineer"
description: "Calculates and plans spacecraft orbits and trajectories, determines where satellites are, and helps avoid collisions with debris and other objects."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/astrodynamics-engineer"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Astrodynamics Engineer

**Category:** Architecture and Engineering · **SOC code:** 17-2011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 17-2011.00

Calculates and plans spacecraft orbits and trajectories, determines where satellites are, and helps avoid collisions with debris and other objects.

Also advertised as: Orbital Analyst; Flight Dynamics Engineer; Trajectory Engineer; Mission Design Engineer; Orbit Determination Analyst.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $134,960 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $64.89/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $86,700 to $205,890, with the middle half between $106,110 and $169,690
- **Total US employment:** 67,710
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +8.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 3,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 24/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 67,710 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $86,700 |
| 25th | $106,110 |
| 50th (median) | $134,960 |
| 75th | $169,690 |
| 90th | $205,890 |
| Mean (average) | $142,060 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MN | $159,060 | $161,284 | 140 |
| WA | $158,370 | $147,991 | 5,760 |
| CA | $157,620 | $142,359 | 9,170 |
| DC | $157,600 | $143,402 | 290 |
| MD | $156,750 | $149,344 | 3,180 |
| CO | $156,190 | $151,564 | 4,070 |
| MA | $149,470 | $141,333 | 990 |
| VT | $144,400 | $147,410 | 100 |
| VA | $143,210 | $141,646 | 2,540 |
| GA | $140,460 | $145,867 | 2,230 |
| OH | $138,440 | $149,223 | 3,710 |
| HI | $137,240 | $124,819 | 40 |
| SC | $137,030 | $146,167 | 650 |
| LA | $136,970 | $155,282 | 90 |
| UT | $135,840 | $137,401 | 1,010 |

26 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 41 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/astrodynamics-engineer/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/astrodynamics-engineer.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 68,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 74,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,700 jobs, or +8.3%. Much faster than average: 8.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 3,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Design trajectories and launch windows for spacecraft missions
- Determine satellite orbits from radar, optical or GPS tracking data
- Plan station-keeping and orbit-raising maneuvers
- Screen satellites for close approaches with debris and other spacecraft
- Plan collision avoidance maneuvers with operators
- Develop and validate orbit propagation software
- Predict ground station contact times for mission operations

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Analysis — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Technology Design — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Physics — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.05 |
| R — Realistic | 5.65 |
| C — Conventional | 4.74 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.52 |
| A — Artistic | 2.35 |
| S — Social | 1.25 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 89.3 |
| INTJ | 86.4 |
| ISTP | 85.9 |
| INTP | 69.5 |
| ESTJ | 63.9 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, INTJ, ISTP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Aerospace Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aerospace-engineer) — median $134,960
- [Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aerospace-engineering-and-operations-technologist-and-technician) — median $82,890
- [Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electro-mechanical-and-mechatronics-technologist-and-technician) — median $73,900
- [Avionics Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/avionics-technician) — median $82,280
- [Mechanical Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechanical-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $74,510
- [Mechanical Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechanical-engineer) — median $104,110
- [Aircraft Mechanic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-mechanic) — median $79,870
- [Automotive Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/automotive-engineer) — median $104,110
- [Electronics Engineer, Except Computer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electronics-engineer) — median $130,220
- [Mechatronics Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechatronics-engineer) — median $122,930

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/astrodynamics-engineer