Nic Altamirano

Nic Altamirano serves as Director of Mission Assurance at the University of Arizona Space Institute (UASI) and acts as Mission Operations Manager for the Multi-Mission Operations Center (MMOC), including serving as Mission Operations Project Manager for the Pandora mission. In these roles, he is responsible for end-to-end mission operations planning and execution, operational readiness, risk posture, and coordination across flight and ground segments.

Nic provides programmatic and operational leadership across multidisciplinary teams spanning Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, and R&D Engineering. He aligns technical execution with mission schedules, funding constraints, and program objectives, ensuring infrastructure, personnel, and processes are integrated to support sustained multi-mission operations.

Prior to assuming his current responsibilities, Nic served as Director of Information Technology at UASI, where he led the design and implementation of the technology infrastructure supporting the Applied Research Building, the Grand Challenges Research Building, and the Mission Integration Lab. His work established the operational architecture, secure networks, and systems framework required to enable mission operations, research computing, and multi-mission integration capabilities across UASI facilities.

He has supported multiple MMOC efforts, including CatSat and GUSTO, providing IT, ground systems, and operational infrastructure leadership to establish and sustain mission and science operations capability.