Comment by i_don_t_know

> Does it make sense to change direction at this point? I envy PhDs working on self-driving cars and rockets and AI.

You don’t need a PhD to work on rockets. Well, you might depending on what you want to do.

There are a lot of software opportunities at rocket companies from test systems, real-time measurements, operator interfaces, flight simulation, and various other internal supporting software.

You might be interested in and have the right experience for, for example, operator interfaces and various internal dashboards and database applications. That might be your entry into the field and you can try to branch out from there into other areas.