Liberty engineering student prepares to launch career with second internship at SpaceX

Bradley Campbell, a rising senior at Liberty University pursuing a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, is enjoying an up-close-and-personal look at the latest technological advances in space exploration on his second summer internship with SpaceX.

Campbell served as an avionics design engineer on the Liberty Rocketry competition team his first two years, employing his skills in circuit analysis and computer-aided design to create innovative solutions for the electronics and flight software used in the team’s projects. When the team’s Waymaker rocket placed in the Top 10 at the 2024 Spaceport Cup in Las Cruces, N.M., SpaceX recruiters took notice. They encouraged Campbell to apply for a 12-week internship; he was accepted and assigned to work on the launch automation and controls side of the SpaceX launch pad in Starbase, Texas, last summer.

“They gave me a lot of responsibility right off the bat, a lot of things to take initiative on,” Campbell said. “They gave me a lot of projects that I was responsible for where there wasn’t really a whole lot of oversight. They were kind of like, ‘Here’s your project. We need results.’”

He performed plenty of coding and a bit of circuit design on a team of two to three engineers who wrote work orders for the technicians on the launch pad, which he compared to a giant gas station with an array of pipes, sensors, and control valves designed to fuel the rocket and report its vital information back to mission control.

“That was a lot of fun getting to learn how all of that works … and being able to go there and learn from them and what they expected of me,” Campbell said. “I learned a lot about what it means to actually work as an engineer there, or really anywhere. It was an amazing opportunity that God blessed me with that I was very grateful to be a part of.”

He said a highlight was witnessing Flight Test 10 of Starship on Aug. 25, 2025. That launch, which came after a series of failures in Flights 7–9 that included upper-stage explosions and re-entry losses, featured the first-ever Starship payload deployment from space and second in-space Raptor engine relight (a deorbit burn performed to slow the rocket on its return to Earth).

Campbell, originally from North Carolina, was asked to stay at SpaceX after his internship ended but opted to return to Liberty for his junior year. He applied to work for SpaceX again and arrived in Starbase in mid-May to begin his second internship.

Campbell said his electrical engineering studies at Liberty prepared him for the internship interviews, when he was asked many technical questions.

“I’ve been blessed to be able to learn a lot about electrical engineering from a number of great professors here (at Liberty),” he said.

Campbell chose electrical engineering to continue his high school hobby of building circuits while growing in knowledge in the field.

“For me, (electrical) is one of the most diverse fields in engineering. I enjoy the technical aspect of it and how it can get really theoretical really quick, with a lot of physics involved, but there are a lot of cool things you can do with it.”

As thrilled as he is to be a part of one of the most forward-thinking and technologically advanced companies in the world, Campbell said he will not waste the opportunity to share his faith during his internship.

“Honestly, the most fruitful thing that happened this past summer was just getting to share the Gospel with my roommates, two interns from Georgia Tech,” he said. “I was able to witness to them and do life with them, and that was amazing.”

This summer, Campbell is working more on ground side avionics control systems for Starship rockets on the launch pad. In his first week back on the job, he helped set up some of the cameras for the launch of Flight Test 12 on May 22 (see launch below). That suborbital flight was the first of the Version 3 Starship and its Super Heavy booster from the newly constructed Pad 2. The flight was designed to test the upgraded hardware and gather critical data for future missions, including NASA’s Artemis program and eventual crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.

Campbell said it has been exciting to have a part in capturing the wonders of the universe on display throughout space, all pointing to God’s creative power.

“The Heavens declare the glory of God and the skies above declare His majesty,” he said. “Being able to explore that and see His glory in creation is an amazing opportunity. I think (SpaceX’s missions are some) of the coolest things that any company is doing, but it doesn’t compare to storing up treasures in Heaven. This internship and all the work I do there is in vain if His name is not being made known.”

He cited Romans 1:20, which states that people are without excuse for not believing in God because of the revelation of His eternal power and divine nature through creation.

“We can know about God through that (creation), but it’s only through relationship with Him that we can really get to know Him,” Campbell said.

Campbell has been a part of Liberty’s spiritual development leadership team on campus, serving as a Community Group Leader his first two years in the Residential Commons, and he will serve as a Resident Shepherd in the fall.

“I’m very grateful to be able to do ministry in the context of Christian community here,” Campbell said. “I’ve been under some incredible RS’s and learned a lot about theology from them.”

Throughout high school, he debated between pursuing a career in engineering, where he has a clear gifting and a desire to use it, and going into mission work.

“I read the Bible and the Great Commission and was like, ‘We need to get the Gospel out there,’” Campbell said. “I’m still working through what God wants me to do. During my internship, being able to share with a lot of people who care nothing about God was an amazing opportunity. I hope to be able to continue that, wherever God has placed me, to just share the Gospel and preach His name more boldly every time.”

He said God only knows what his future holds, whether it’s a full-time job at SpaceX, another job, or back at Liberty pursuing a master’s degree.

“My desire is to go wherever He wants me. Being (at SpaceX) this past summer, I realized people strive their whole lives to get to places like this. I’m not smart enough to get in there on my own, but the Lord had me there for a reason.”

This week, Campbell met two Liberty alumni now working full time for SpaceX, Shelton Ware (’24), who started in February as a Starship launch engineer at SpaceX’s operations in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Elijah Ometz (’26), the chief engineer of Liberty’s Formula SAE competition team that competed at SAE International at Michigan International Speedway in mid-May and has launched his career at Starbase, Texas.

Campbell said space exploration will always fascinate him. He joined in celebrating NASA’s Artemis II mission in April and said the breathtaking images from the historic mission help put matters in proper spiritual perspective.

“The pictures show we really are just here in God’s creation completely at His will,” Campbell said. “Our lives are not secure in anything other than His hands. He’s the One who wakes us up in the morning and makes our heart beat, so we’re trusting in Him for that.”

Campbell captured the May 22 launch of SpaceX’s Starship Flight Test 12 from the newly built Pad 2 in Starbase, Texas: