Nic Altamirano

Nic Altamirano is the Acting Mission Operations Manager for the University of Arizona Space Institute’s Multi-Mission Operations Center (MMOC) and serves as the 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, and coordination across flight and ground segments.

Prior to joining the MMOC in 2024, Nic served as Director of Safety & Mission Assurance and Information Technology at the Arizona Space Institute, where he led the design and implementation of the Mission Operations Center infrastructure and played a key role in developing the Applied Research Building to support sustained mission operations. His work established the operational architecture, systems, and processes that enable multi-mission support. 

(Working alongside Karl Harshman during the construction of the Applied Research Building, Nic helped bring Karl’s vision of a Multi-Mission Operations Center at the University to life, translating that vision into an operational capability that now supports multiple missions.)

In his current position, Nic manages multidisciplinary teams across Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, and R&D Engineering, aligning technical execution with mission schedules, risk posture, and operational constraints. He has supported multiple MMOC efforts, including the CatSat CubeSat and GUSTO scientific balloon mission, providing IT and ground systems support to establish and maintain mission and science operations infrastructure within the Applied Research Building.