(Bloomberg) -- A SpaceX Starlink satellite engineer involved in its nascent cellular-service business is leaving the company. 

As Senior Director of Satellite Engineering, Sara Spangelo had a key role inside SpaceX’s fast-growing Starlink service, which sells internet beamed down from thousands of satellites orbiting above the Earth.  

Spangelo is leaving just as SpaceX works to expand its direct-to-cell messaging initiative beyond the US and New Zealand. 

Operating like a cell tower in space, the Starlink satellites work with users’ existing phones — rather than using bulky, specialized handsets — to enable text messaging and eventually phone calls in areas where traditional cell signals are weak or nonexistent. The US Federal Communications Commission conditionally approved Starlink’s satellite-to-cell plans last year.

SpaceX and Spangelo didn’t respond to requests for comment.  

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Spangelo was previously the co-founder and chief executive officer of Swarm Technologies, which SpaceX agreed to buy in July 2021 for an undisclosed figure. Prior to founding Swarm in 2017 Spangelo held positions at Alphabet and NASA, according to her Linkedin profile.

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