What are the day-to-day responsibilities of an aerospace engineer?

This is difficult to answer because it varies widely depending on the type of job one does. However, aerospace engineers predominantly work in one of two major branches of the field: aeronautical engineering (projects related to vehicles operating in the atmosphere) or astronautical engineering (projects related to vehicles operating in space). Aeronautical engineers tend to work on projects like wind tunnel tests, the design of aircraft or their components, analyzing flight test data, building and testing engines or rocket motors, predicting aerodynamic behavior using computers, designing flight control systems, making performance predictions for aircraft, and working on flight simulators. Typical projects an astronautical engineer might perform include designing power systems for satellites, analyzing spacecraft structures, developing communications systems for distant space probes, designing new rockets and manned space vehicles, planning future space missions, developing hardware ...  more