Christopher Luwanga is a space physicist with hands-on experience in satellite engineering. Most recently, he was involved in the NTU Singapore SCOOB-I satellite mission that launched into Low Earth Orbit in 2022 aboard an ISRO rocket as the Electrical Power Systems Engineer and Test Engineer.
After graduating from Kamuzu Academy, Christopher studied Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at New York University Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America. Between 2018 and 2022, he pursued his PhD in space physics at Nanyang Technological University Singapore, a top university in Asia and the world. His research is on ionospheric irregularities that appear as Spread-F on ionograms. He built models based on machine learning that could identify Spread-F autonomously. Furthermore, he developed a web interface for collaborative labelling of ionograms by humans to provide feedback to the machine learning model so that it can improve over time. A key publication is here.
In 2022 he founded Galamad Aerospace, a space tech company based in Singapore. Galamad Aerospace is designing and building programmable, reusable spacecraft that enable new ways of connecting and powering humanity. By leveraging existing strengths in Singapore and Africa, Galamad is building processes and an ecosystem for rapid and efficient assembly of spacecraft to service multi-satellite orders for clients worldwide. Galamad welcomes collaborations, including payload hosting, for its mission in 2024.