Luke Longarzo is a graduate student in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University, where he is pursuing a Master of Science with a concentration in Controls, Astrodynamics and Space Application, expected December 2026.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in the same field from Purdue, graduating in May 2025. Luke’s path to aerospace was shaped early. Growing up in Los Angeles, he developed a hands-on engineering instinct as a lead on the competitive robotics team at Windward School, where he designed and fabricated mechanisms for a 125-pound competition robot alongside a 40-member team. That same drive to build things that actually work has followed him ever since.

At Purdue, Luke contributed to the Purdue Space Program as a structures and manufacturing engineer, building rocket components that brought the team within 100 feet of their 10,000-foot target altitude at competition. His most formative experience came through a collaboration with Blue Origin, where he co-led the design, build, and test of a payload — ultimately approved for launch on Blue Origin’s New Shepard — that popped a popcorn kernel in simulated lunar gravity. The project required hardware and software integration across Arduino, Python, and Autodesk Fusion, and demanded the kind of end-to-end engineering ownership that most undergraduates don’t encounter until years into their careers.

His graduate research has focused on trajectory optimization and mission design, including developing a sequential convex programming algorithm for low-thrust transfers to asteroid 16 Psyche and co-leading a full systems analysis for a proposed sample return mission to the same target. Luke is seeking a full-time entry-level role following graduation in December 2026, with a focus on GNC, mission design, or systems engineering at organizations advancing space exploration and human presence beyond Earth. An alumnus of Phi Delta Theta — Neil Armstrong’s fraternity — he skis whenever the mountains cooperate and is conversational in Spanish.