Promoted content: Lockheed Martin's Preeya Lakhani to talk about a career in space at FIA2024

When Preeya Lakhani was just four-years-old, she was fascinated by a DVD which was given out for free with a UK Sunday newspaper. The disc offered the user the opportunity to explore the planets, and Preeya and her dad loaded it into their old computer. Neither of them realised what an important moment this would be, but as Preeya watched the universe unfold before her, it unleashed a passion for space that has never gone away. “Even at that age, I remember just being fascinated by it,” said Preeya.

It started a life long love affair with space – and created a desire in the-then youngster to be involved.

Trips to Farnborough Air Show with her father continued to grow the fascination of how things worked and, adds Preeya with a smile, so was an obsession with tv show, Star Trek Voyager and Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). “She was a woman who knew her stuff and was a leader, and I thought that’s what I wanted to be,” said Preeya.

While her career path may not have seen her on a spacecraft – yet – she is certainly at the forefront of helping the UK forge space as not only a viable economic prospect but as a career. At just 28, Preeya is Programme Lead for Space for Lockheed Martin, the result of determination and good honest graft.

Preeya had her future all mapped out in her head, but when her GCSEs didn’t work out as planned and she didn’t get her place at university, she started to look at different routes to achieve her goal. It was only in recent years when she was diagnosed with ADHD and autism that Preeya started to understand why her academic path may have faltered slightly, but this never lessened her desire to succeed.

Preeya decided to go to college and study for BTECs, believing this way she could gain the points she needed to go to university. Despite being the only female applicant, she managed to win a place on an mechanical engineering course where she was also offered the opportunity for an apprenticeship.

“I was the only girl among 40 boys,” she said. “The lab coats didn’t fit me and I had to stand on a stool to reach the machines, but I wasn’t going to let that put me off.”

Preeya won an apprenticeship with Gilette Razors, at the same time not only getting her BTEC but achieving in an HND in two year and an HNC in a year.

A trip to a careers fair led to a conversation with someone working for the Atomic Weapons Establishment and she joined the company, working as a technical advisor to the CFO. “We struck a deal, he would teach me about how to run a company and in return, I’d teach him everything about our at sea nuclear deterrent,” said Preeya.

That year-long secondment was the springboard to eventually getting a job at Lockheed Martin, moving up the ladder before working in project management and taking up her current role as Programme Lead. “Sometimes your career doesn’t take the path you originally planned but that doesn’t mean you should ever give up,” said Preeya. “I want to be a leader in space, a project director and show people that the UK space sector is an incredible place to be.”

Preeya Lakhani will be talking about her career in space at the Farnborough International Airshow's Space Zone theatre, at 11.30 on Friday 26th July.