Bella

Bella Hatty is taking environmental management to a whole new level – space.

As an orbital analyst with KBR, she is a ‘space traffic manager’ observing the skies above Australia, noting millions of pieces of space debris as well as the International Space Station and satellites.

A trained astrophysicist, Bella is currently completing her Masters, researching space debris and re-entry trajectory reconstruction.

She found her way to KBR in 2024 after a previous role at the Australian Space Agency specialising in space situational and space domain awareness.

“I am combining my passions of space domain awareness and understanding more about the impact that debris can have on the space environment which has implications for life on earth, future space missions, defence and security and science” she said.

This year from KBR’s Adelaide office, Bella demonstrated the effectiveness of KBR’s space domain awareness technologies in a joint military exercise in the Indo Pacific run by the United States Space Force.

In a ‘Follow-the-Sun’ Indo Pacific exercise, Bella and US orbital analysts operated Iron Stallion to monitor simulated anti-satellite weapons tests and aggressive approaches to US, UK, Japanese, Korean and Australian satellites. This enabled round-the-clock surveillance and seamless alliance operations.

Iron Stallion ingests and absorbs multiple data sources to provide orbital and space analysis. As an information-based product, it can be used to manage traffic in space. This involves collision assessment and avoidance and re-entry management, leveraging proprietary algorithms developed by KBR and analyses hundreds of thousands of data points.

“It was an amazing opportunity to be involved in a global exercise and to demonstrate the effectiveness of Iron Stallion’s capabilities,” she said.

Outside of work, Bella speaks Japanese and keeps busy rock climbing for a hobby. She’s also passionate about learning new things and keeping her mind active.

“I set a course for myself that included learning something new every day, reading books and volunteering for as many roles as possible in space related activities or exercises. It’s important to have a goal in mind and to maintain your focus.”

KBR has a 65-year history of defence and infrastructure operations in Australia. It is part of a global enterprise with a role in space that is unrivalled and includes more than five decades of supporting crewed space flights for NASA.

Learn more about a career with KBR.

Article developed in partnership with KBR.