SpaceX - Starship
I worked on a lot of fun projects over my 4 years on Starship. Here are a few of my favorites.
Starship - Booster Spin Start
Shortly before liftoff, pressurized nitrogen gas was used to start the engines by spinning their turbines. I owned the spin system for Booster 7, including all vehicle side hardware and integrated vehicle-pad operations. Booster 7 was used for the first orbital flight test of Starship.
Starship - Reaction Control System
I developed the cold gas thruster reaction control system used on suborbital Starship, owning all hardware, analysis and testing. This system was used to orient the rocket when not enough engines were firing to maintain attitude control.
Following the successful conclusion of our 10km hop suborbital campaign, I led a multidisciplinary team to design and build a bipropellant reaction control system for the orbital booster.
Starhopper - Hydraulics
I owned all hydraulic systems on the Starhopper test vehicle. This vehicle did a series of controlled flights and landings on a single engine in 2019.
Raptor Engine - Fuel Preburner
I led manufacturing of the fuel rich preburner combustion device for the first full scale Raptor engine. Raptor is the engine powering SpaceX’s Starship vehicles.