Position/Role

Cost Engineer at European Space Agency (ESA).

Professional career

Elisabetta Lamboglia graduates at University of Rome `La Sapienza` in Aerospace Engineering in 2003, including an experience of six months in maintenance engineering at Alitalia SpA technical area. In 2006 Elisabetta graduates (MSc) cum laude in Astronautic Engineering, at the School of Aerospace Engineering of `La Sapienza`, including an experience of four months as intern at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC, European Space Agency).

In 2007 she continues as young graduate at ESTEC, when she works on analytical research and implementation of `the market effects`, modelling for multivariate data analysis, multi-criteria decision making processes, cost models enhancement and risk management assessment. She furthermore participates as systems cost chair to feasibility studies.  

In June 2009 she starts her experience at NASA Ames Research Center (Silicon Valley, California), where she earns the certificate of completion of the Space Studies Program on satellite applications (International Space University, ISU), and where she relates with more than 130 other experts and more than 40 different nationalities. At NASA she also works on the DREAM project (Disaster Risk Evaluation and Management), which customer is the World Bank, and which main objective is to explore the combination of earth observation tools, web-based and mobile data management tools, and how this combination can support and improve Disaster Risk Management.

From September 2009 to March 2010, she moves to the commercial business domain, working for a Dutch leading company in the off-shore and petrochemical sector (Heerema Marine Contractors), where she demonstrates  versatility and capability to work in different environments, such as in finance and during the very challenging years right after the 2008 financial crisis.            

In March of 2010 she returns in ESTEC as Cost Engineer, in the directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality, and where she provides cross cutting support to the main programs of all ESA directorates. 

In 2013 she is appointed as external and independent officer at programmatic decision point for the Italian Space Agency (ISA), on the PRISMA project, which main objectives are the environmental monitoring, resource management, crop classification, pollution control, forest analysis and precision in agriculture.  

In 2015 she completes postgraduate studies in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she focuses on the theory and practice of global international organizations, diplomacy, and their role in international politics and related matters of concern to our society.  Selected subject areas of study are international and environmental security.

Since 2017, Elisabetta covers the role of ESA cost engineering team coordinator for the missions aimed to global monitoring and environmental security (Copernicus) and for the all ESA Earth Observation domain. 

In the year 2020 she earns several United Nations certifications, out of which `Entrepreneurship for Migrants and Refugees`, `Geospatial Information Technology (GIT) in Fragile Contexts,`, `Integrated planning for climate change and biodiversity`.

Since November 2021 she has been ESA Mentoring in the STEM Talent Girl Program, an educative project to develop talent and promote scientific–technological vocations. It is specifically addressed to women with the sole goal of inspiring and empowering girls and teenagers to continue with bright STEM careers.

Scientific results

During the elaboration of her master thesis Elisabetta contributed to the activities of the GAUSS group (School of Aerospace Engineering, University of Rome `La Sapienza`), including personal participation to the university-built microsatellite UniSat 4 launch from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (26 July 2006). 

As young graduate, she worked on the enhancement of mathematical models for financial and risk management applications, still operational nowadays. She furthermore participated to feasibility studies of several space missions, out of which Copernicus Sentinel 5p, successfully launched in October 2017. 

In the next years, she has been the appointed cost engineer for several independent programmatic and financial evaluations, dialogues, and negotiations for implementations of projects implementation. Moreover, she coordinated and harmonized cost-working groups for the Earth Explorers` mission selection and implementation, in close cooperation with senior managers of the Agency.

She worked as external officer to the programmatic envelope and critical aspects concerning ASI PRISMA; the satellite reached its orbit in March 2019.

From 2017 to 2020 she has been full-time assigned to the Copernicus expansion program (CHIME, LSTM, CO2M, ROSE-L, CRISTAL, CIMR), which she supported in the preparatory activities for ESA Ministerial Council (Space19+) and the successful implementation kick off of each of the six missions. 

From March 2022 to June 2023, she was nominated Climate and Sustainability Leader for the ESA Strategy, Foresight and Coordination. In this role, she was Arrhenius Study manager, and she led the ESA Sustainability Strategy for EGA, the Decarbonisation Working Group, and Climate Action, LCA, and Green Technologies. She represented ESA in collaborations with the European Commission and European Union Agency for the Space Programme on Green Deal Ambitions related to Space and Environmental Policy.  

Space sector representative in international fora such as the Council for the relations between Italy and United States (Consiusa), she is currently leading projects, focusing on AI and data simulation R&D for EO downstream applications and commercialisation, together with her doctoral research achievement in Geoinformation.   

Editorial work and publications

[2025] New Space markets: the European perspective on new frontiers, commercialization, and domestic uses of space applications, E. Lamboglia at all., in T. Hoerber, M. Borowitz, A. Forganni, & de Sousa, M. (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Space Policy, Routledge, 2025. Doi:10.4324/9781003342380-35.https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003342380-35/newspace-markets-elisabetta-lamboglia-vedant-mogha-michel-van-pelt

[2024] The evolution of Earth Observation: exploring space sustainability through European case studies, E. Lamboglia et al., (2024).  International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 17(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/19397038.2024.2387427

[2024] Long-term temporal analysis of Sentinel-2 spectral reflectance data for post-earthquake monitoring of urban environment dynamics, E. Lamboglia et al., (2024). European Journal of Remote Sensing, 58(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/22797254.2024.2445658, European Journal of Remote Sensing, 58(1) · Dec 24, 2024

[2024] Long-Term Post-Earthquake Monitoring of Urban Areas Based on Time Series Analysis of Sentinel-2 Spectral Reflectance Data, G. Guerrisi, E. Lamboglia, S. Bonafoni and F. Del Frate, IGARSS 2024 - 2024 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Athens, Greece, 2024, pp. 3897-3901, https://doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS53475.2024.10642433

[2024] An attractive European Earth Observation Ecosystem of Services: Flexible, scalable, and cost-effective data spaces empowering downstream business opportunities, E. Lamboglia et al., (2024), in Proc. 75th Int. Astronaut. Congr. (IAC), Milan, Italy.

[2023] The potential of hybrid hyperspectral constellations, Steven George et al., 14th IAA SSEO, 8-12 May 2023

[2023] New Space SmallSats concepts, from programmatic to governance and sustainability benefits - the ESA perspective and lesson learnt, Lamboglia et al., 14th IAA SSEO, 8-12 May 2023

[2022] The socioeconomic benefits of Earth Observation applications in the New Space era, Elisabetta Lamboglia, Vedant Paul Mogha, IAC 2022, Paris, 21 Sep 2022, https://dl.iafastro.directory/event/IAC-2022/paper/67962/

[2022] Estimating Copernicus High Priority Candidate Missions Jobs for Europe, Elisabetta Lamboglia, Luisa Corrado, Fabio Del Frate, IAC 2022, Paris, 21 Sep 2022

[2021] Elisabetta Lamboglia, ESTEC, The benefit of Full, Free and Open Satellite geoinformation   for detecting and monitoring socio-economic factors on land use, 12th ESSCA Space Policy Workshop (28 April 2021) & UACES 2021 (6-8 September 2021, Space Policy panel)

[2018] Lamboglia E. Extensive Cost Estimating methodologies for the CDF GaiaNIR study, SECESA.

[2014] Lamboglia E. A tool for rapid and early schedule estimates, Project Control Professional.

Awards and prizes

ESA Teamwork Excellence Award 2019: Copernicus High Priority Candidate Missions Phase A/B1 team.

ESA Teamwork Excellence Award 2019: Concurrent Design Facility team (Future Mission Studies).

Best Mentor Award 2023, Space Generation Advisory Council, in Support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications. https://spacegeneration.org/best-mentor-spring-2023-elisabetta-lamboglia.