Ken Ernandes is an Aerospace Engineer specializing in Space Flight Dynamics.  He is employed by L3Harris Technologies and as an Adjunct Professor at Florida Institute of Technology.  He is a former U.S. Air Force officer where he was the Chief Orbital Analyst Instructor for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).  He also had the opportunity to train in Air Combat Maneuvering as a member of the 71st Tactical Fighter Squadron, flying the F-15 Eagle.  Ken has a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics/Mathematics from Manhattan College and a Master of Engineering degree in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  He has two patents applying Kalman filtering: one for calibrating non-uniformity of hyperspectral imagers and one for geo-locating seaborne vessels from space using their Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals.

Ken has had the privilege of working with numerous space systems including NAVSTAR GPS and the GOES-R series of meteorological satellites, as well as being a member of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Inter-Operable Radio System (IORS) development team.  For ARISS IORS he is primarily responsible for tracking hardware compliance against the rigid NASA crew safety requirements, coordinating with the design engineers, and preparing the corresponding documentation that is delivered to NASA.  More recently, he is a member of the Amateur Radio Exploration (AREx) team, which is developing the amateur radio equipment for the Lunar Gateway space station.  Ken is a private pilot and a PADI certified Master SCUBA Diver, where he enjoys underwater videography.  His other hobbies include Amateur Radio (including amateur satellite communications), Surfing, High Power Rocketry, Astronomy, and Gemstone faceting.