A good design with a bad presentation is doomed immediately. Half of everything you hear in a classroom is crap. Education is figuring out which half is which. When in doubt, document. The schedule you develop will seem like a complete work of fiction up until the moment your customer fires you for not meeting it.
Space is a completely unforgiving environment.
Your contributions Project-related tasks converge. Managers attempt to design the system, and designers attempt to manage the project. A small satellite inherently limits the amount of trouble you can cause. Never show your working prototype to the management. It imay become tomorrows press announcement of the finished project.