Doug Sinclair: helping small satellites make a big impact
When Doug Sinclair looks back on his career in space engineering, he is characteristically modest. His work has contributed to missions connected to NASA’s CAPSTONE lunar mission, emergency messaging from the iPhone 14, and more than 100 satellites currently in orbit. Yet for Doug, who graduated from Surrey with an MSc in Satellite Engineering in 1998, the real achievement is not only technical.
Finding his place in space
Doug’s fascination with space began in childhood. Growing up in the UK, he remembers the excitement of the Giotto probe passing Halley’s Comet and Voyager 2 exploring the outer planets.
“There were a number of big space events at that time,” he says. “I was interested in all areas of space, but I realised it was actually the engineering that was more interesting to me than the space science.”
After completing an undergraduate degree in Engineering Science at the University of Toronto, specialising in aerospace, Doug chose Surrey for his master’s. He was particularly drawn to the University’s international reputation for small spacecraft through the Surrey Space Centre and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.
“Surrey has this wonderful centre of excellence around Professor Sir Martin Sweeting and Co,” he says. “They were one of the world leaders in building little spacecraft.”
A small pond with big opportunities
Doug describes Surrey as “a comfortably sized pond” - small enough that he could make a meaningful contribution, but full of expertise.
He worked on SNAP (the Surrey Nanosat Applications Project), which he describes as “a satellite the size of an instant coffee tin”. At a time before the CubeSat standard became widely known, Surrey was already pushing the boundaries of what small spacecraft could do.
“The university was very generous to me in terms of space,” he says. “I had a desk upstairs with a computer, and I had a bench in the lab downstairs. They were happy for me to tinker and do things in my own time.”
One memory that has stayed with him is being taught by Maarten (Max) Meerman how to solder aluminium - a notoriously difficult task.
“I remember thinking, ‘at no point have I asked you how to solder aluminium’” Doug says. “But I noticed he had this unique skill, and he was motivated to share it with other people so that the knowledge is passed down.”
That spirit of shared knowledge continues to shape Doug’s approach today.
Building a space hardware business
After graduating, Doug returned to Toronto and joined Dynacon Enterprises, a small satellite company. There, he worked on missions including MOST, a Canadian space telescope, and NASA’s CHIPSat.
After three years, he decided to start his own company. Sinclair Interplanetary began as a one-person consultancy and grew organically into a specialist supplier of spacecraft components.
“I started that company so that I wouldn’t have a manager,” Doug says. “It turns out that company did very well.”
Founded in 2001, Sinclair Interplanetary designed and built hardware that enabled small satellites to point precisely at targets on Earth or in space. Its star trackers and reaction wheels helped miniaturise capabilities that had previously been far larger and more expensive.
Doug explains the challenge simply. If a satellite takes a picture of Earth, knowing where the spacecraft was is only part of the problem. You also need to know exactly where the camera was pointing.
“I was helping to solve that second problem,” he says. “There were still cameras that were millions of dollars and tens of kilograms. I helped shrink those down to $100,000 and 100-gram sort of numbers.”
Standing on the shoulders of giants
Doug is quick to point out that innovation rarely happens in isolation. The miniaturisation of satellite hardware was made possible by advances in electronics, including technologies developed for mobile phones.
“It was because we had things like cell phone technology,” he says. “Lots of people had been working on miniaturising electronics. We were one of the first people to start stacking chips on top of each other for space.”
That willingness to adapt ideas from elsewhere helped Sinclair Interplanetary grow into a company supplying components for hundreds of satellites. In 2020, Doug sold the business to Rocket Lab, where he later worked as an Engineering Fellow until 2023.
From founder to mentor
Today, Doug divides his time between Toronto and Auckland and advises emerging space companies “Since 2018, he has been a mentor in the Space stream of Rotman School of Management’s Creative Destruction Lab, where he advises the next generation of aspiring engineers become better entrepreneurs”
His advice to students and graduates is direct: do not fall in love with your technology before you know whether anyone needs it.
“Business is different from engineering. Business needs customers,” he says. “I see so many people spending their time, their money, their investors’ money to further develop technology without figuring out whether anybody actually wants it and will pay for it.”
His mantra is simple: “Fall out of love with your technology, fall in love with your customers’ pro
A career still fuelled by curiosity
Doug has received the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute Alouette Award three times for his contribution to Canadian space engineering, most recently in 2024. For him, the recognition brings responsibility.
“It’s a tool to be used,” he says. “How can we help the next generation, whether that’s the next generation of companies or the next generation of students?”
Despite a career that has helped change what small satellites can do, Doug remains energised by how much there is still to learn.
“There is no point at which we run out of learning,” he says. “So that’s fun.”