Career move out of this world for former Baldwin volleyball player Chris Rampolla

Chris Rampolla has graduated from all-state to all-universe status.

Rampolla, a former standout volleyball player at Baldwin, is employed as a robotics software engineer for a company called Astrobotic Technology Inc., with headquarters located on Pittsburgh’s Northside.

Astrobotic is the world’s leading lunar logistics company. It specializes in developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions, making space missions feasible and more affordable for science, exploration and commerce, providing end-to-end delivery services for payloads to the moon.

“I write software for the planetary mobility department,” Rampolla said. “We make our own moon rovers and moon landers, and we’re the ones who design, build and test our moon rovers.

“We had a gentleman, Dr. (Thomas) Zurbuchen of NASA, visit us. When he stopped by our department, he drove one of our rovers, which our whole team was excited about because he is the main person in charge of the scientific missions at NASA. He is a really nice, very friendly guy.”

Rampolla, 33, graduated from Baldwin in 2006 with a grade-point average in the “high three’s.” He competed in volleyball for two-and-a-half seasons as a 6-foot-5, 210-pound middle hitter, then studied philosophy and history at Pitt where he graduated in 2011.

“An injury kept me out of sports in general until midway through my sophomore year, so I just picked up volleyball and went with that full-time when I was healthy,” Rampolla said. “I played year-round in summer, fall and winter leagues in addition to our school league, so time was limited.”

Former Baldwin coach Eric Falcione, himself a science aficionado, offered laudatory praise for the talented, athletic Rampolla.

“Chris was one of the best middle hitters to play for Baldwin,” Falcione said. “He was an integral part of a high-caliber team that not only played together but were friends since kindergarten. Guys like Peter Swauger, Justin Schmotzer, Matt Lutz and Blake Keller. All of them were amazing athletes who fed off one another. They had ability and wisdom of much older athletes. And Chris was a ‘triple threat;’ he was a great athlete and great thinker with a fun sense of humor.

“I am not surprised of his recent career success. His Baldwin peers and myself are incredibly proud of him. Even though he was a high school all-star, Chris decided he would not play in college. He became a scholar and world traveler. It’s been an honor to coach guys like him. He and the others really never cease to amaze me. They are the best of the best, and we all can’t wait to see what Chris will do next.”

Rampolla, who has grown to 6-6 and 240 pounds, was recruited at the Division I level but opted to concentrate solely on his academics at Pitt.

“I had offers from some D1 and plenty of D2 and D3 schools,” he said, “but I didn’t like any of the schools when I visited. I ended up going to Pitt because I absolutely loved the campus and I could envision myself living and learning there.

“I played club volleyball at Pitt, very briefly, and I’ve played in adult leagues. When I lived in L.A. I played sand, and when I lived in D.C. I played sand and indoor.”

Astrobotic was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and associates. The company’s products include autonomous robots, space systems, space payloads, robotic spacecraft and telerobotics.

Astrobotic has won two prizes for Phase 1 of NASA’s Watts on the Moon Centennial Challenge. The first launch of one of its spacecraft, the Peregrine lunar lander, is expected to take place in 2022. Astrobotic also will take NASA’s water-hunting VIPER rover to the lunar surface in late 2023.

“We don’t make our own launch vehicles or heavy-lift rockets,” Rampolla said. “So if we want to send anything we build off-earth, we work with a launch service provider like ULA (United Launch Alliance) or SpaceX.”

Rampollo has been employed at Astrobotic for five months. He is a self-made man; he did not pursue graduate work or additional studies.

“I am a self-taught software engineer who worked myself up and into where I am now,” Rampolla said. “I’m very lucky to have been given some opportunities to break into the field, and also to have a couple of excellent industry mentors early on who encouraged me and taught me the ropes.

“My first job out of college was actually at a coconut water company in L.A., and at some point I fantasized about a career playing pro beach volleyball, so I’ve had a very nontraditional career.”

Rampolla was a varsity starter for two and a-half years at Baldwin, and was voted all-state as a senior. He twice was an All-WPIAL and all-section selection.

“None of my favorite memories (in volleyball) involve actually playing volleyball,” Rampolla said. “I enjoyed the friendships I made, and the down time we spent at tournaments and on the road, laughing until our sides hurt.

“We had a really close group of guys who I still keep in touch with. Eric was a big part of that because of how young-at-heart he was and still is.”

Rampolla began participating in Junior Olympic volleyball in the summer after his sophomore season, which he said “really accelerated my progress.”

The Swauger and Scahill families were the entire reason I got into JO in the first place, and I’ve always been grateful to them for that.”

It seems only natural that the galactic Rampolla, a Swissvale resident and newly wed to his wife Emily, is a world traveler.

“I am married to my wonderful partner, Emily,” Rampolla said. “We got married in a very small socially distanced ceremony in 2020.”

And how’s this for an intriguing travel tale?

“I love to travel,” Rampolla said. “When I traveled to New Zealand in 2018, the RV that my friends and I were in broke down in one of the most remote places on the Southern Island. We waited several hours for a passer-by, who graciously gave us a ride to a tiny little town with one mechanic who no one could locate.

“So we ended up asking a kind gentleman to drive us back to our RV to pick up what we could fit in his car. He wouldn’t take money from us, but he did take the bacon, egg and whiskey from the RV that we couldn’t use as a thank-you payment.”

When not working or traveling, the first-year software engineer enjoys any of several hobbies.

“I read avidly, run trails and hike,” Rampolla said. “I also tinker with electronics and write, mostly nonfiction and commentary. I’ve always been a fan of powerful essays, humorism and creative nonfiction; Hunter S. Thompson, David Sedaris, James Baldwin, Joan Didion, to name a few. People with something interesting to say and a beautiful way of saying it.

“I don’t know if I have anything particularly interesting to say, but I like writing for myself in a poor approximation of the style of authors that inspire me. It helps me think things, through.”

And lately, those thoughts have focused on celestial objects.