Pete Smith

Pete Smith

Fitting Engineer

Pete has 20 years’ experience realising challenging and innovative engineering projects. 

In 2002 he was part of the Qinetic sponsored team aiming to break the balloon altitude record. Pete constructed the largest helium balloon to date at 44 million cubic feet, alongside other supporting systems.   He also built the first Dragon capsule for the newly formed SpaceX, enabling them to gain funding from NASA and constructed altitude safe components for Vijaypat Singhania’s capsule on Mission 70k, a successful attempt to break the altitude record for a hot air balloon. 

From 2012-2020 Pete worked for Astigan, an Ordnance Survey owned company, developing a high altitude pseudo satellite. 

Other projects have included a ground system for a surveillance blimp used for the G8 summit in Scotland and Bollywood films. Pete operated a hypobaric chamber for Elson Space Engineering between 2004 and 2018, the largest privately owned facility in the UK, developing skills in conducting and supervising testing within strict environmental parameters. 

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