
Steve most recently spent 2 years working at Slingshot Aerospace as a Sr. Engineer of Software & Space Systems, building out their team of electrical engineers and developing key technologies, such as an aerial- based non-cooperative RF emission tracker and their deployed real-time AI pipeline. He led the technical team successfully, delivering Slingshot’s 2019 Air Force SBIR Phase I entitled Autonomous Situational Awareness Toolkit, a real-time battlespace awareness system using UAVs and computer vision; this successfully transitioned to Phase II. Steve also spent 5 years working at SpaceX, primarily as a Mission Integration Engineer. This role included acting as the sole Mission Manager on the CONAE SAOCOM 1A mission up through CDR, Mission Manager of the successful ORBCOMM OG2 Flight 2 through launch, and Mission Integration Engineer of four other missions, two through launch. During his time at Saint Louis University he led payload development for their COPPER spacecraft, which launched successfully in 2013. Steve is also a highly sought- after consultant in the field of space systems and advises multiple high-profile clients on their architecture and designs.

Zeke spent 5 years working at SpaceX, most recently as the sole mission integration engineer on the NASA Sentinel-6A and SWOT missions -- essentially working as a systems engineer to interface these satellites onto the Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle. In this role, Zeke worked closely with NASA LSP, NASA JPL, ESA, Airbus, CNES, and Thales Alenia to manage the systems integration of these unique payloads onto the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Prior to working these NASA missions, Zeke led early integration studies on multiple National Security Space Launch (formerly EELV) missions, working closely with the Launch Services Integration Contractors to negotiate, clarify, and resolve interface incompatibilities between the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and these critical missions. Prior to joining the mission management group, Zeke was the primary Integration & Test engineer at SpaceX for the Falcon 9 payload fairing, spearheading the integration, test, and launch of multiple payload fairings through multiple design changes. Zeke’s educational background is in hard sciences and engineering and includes valuable experiences ranging from being the primary instrumentation and data acquisition engineer on an experimental hybrid rocket project to conducting fundamental glaciology research as a student on the Juneau Icefield Research Program.