SpaceX is the third company founded by Mr. Musk. Prior to SpaceX, he co-founded PayPal, the world's leading electronic payment system, and served as the company's chairman and CEO. PayPal has over twenty million customers in 38 countries, processes several billion dollars per year and went public on the NASDAQ under PYPL in early 2002. Mr. Musk was the largest shareholder of PayPal until the company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.

Before PayPal, Mr. Musk co-founded Zip2 Corporation in 1995, a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the media industry, with investments from The New York Times Company, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank and the Hearst Corporation. He served as Chairman, CEO and Chief Technology Officer and in March 1999 sold Zip2 to Compaq for $307 million in an all cash transaction.

Mr. Musk's early experience extends across a spectrum of advanced technology industries, from high energy density ultra-capacitors at Pinnacle Research to software development at Rocket Science and Microsoft. He has a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a business degree from Wharton and originally came out to California to pursue graduate studies in high energy density capacitor physics & materials science at Stanford.

Mr. Mueller has a track record as one of the world's foremost rocket engine designers and is responsible for building and managing an elite propulsion development group at SpaceX. Before being recruited to SpaceX, Mr. Mueller spent 14 years at TRW where he ran the Propulsion and Combustion Products Department, responsible for all liquid rocket engine activities.

During his career at TRW, he was the lead engineer for development of the 650,000 lbf thrust LOX/hydrogen engine, which was successfully hot fired at NASA Stennis in the summer of 2000. He has a broad range of rocket engine design, development and testing experience, including all common liquid propellants and many advanced propellants, ranging in thrust from 5 lbf to 650,000 lbf.

Mr. Mueller has a Master's Degree in mechanical engineering from Loyola Marymount University. He has received many awards, including the TRW Chairman's Award, which is TRW's most prestigious award for technical achievement and holds several US patents in propulsion technology.

Mr. Thompson is responsible for the development of vehicle structures, new manufacturing techniques and operations, with a focus on optimizing the product transition from design to production.  In this role, he has produced many of our key launch system innovations.  He started his career in the Marine Corps before joining McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing), where he successfully managed production of the Delta II, III, and IV, and Titan IV launch vehicles. Mr. Thompson has over 20 years cumulative experience in production and test operations on launch vehicles, spacecraft and aircraft.

Shortly before joining SpaceX, Chris was given responsibility for all Test and Verification activities at the Boeing Huntington Beach Engineering Labs, which supports all development and qualification tests on Delta II, III, and IV, Titan IV, and Space Station. The T&V activities ranged from structural, dynamic, space simulation, material and mechanical properties, and complete system tests at Huntington Beach and various government test facilities.

Mr. Thompson has also worked Delta II launch operations at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base.  He also managed the precision inspection, non-destructive test, and Shuttle cryogenic test departments during his tenure at Huntington Beach. He completed an AP at Embry-Riddle/Chapman University and attended Cal State Long Beach for a BS in Aerospace Engineering.

Ms. Nesselroad is responsible for all launch vehicle production at SpaceX.  Prior to joining the company, she led factory startup operations as well as all production of the Delta IV and Delta II launch vehicles at Boeing.  All Delta IV vehicles launched through early 2005 were built under Ms. Nesselroad's leadership and were uniformly successful.

Ms. Nesselroad started her career in aerospace by serving in the United States Air Force where she worked as a jet engine mechanic on B-52 and KC-135 aircraft for four years before joining McDonnell-Douglas (now Boeing).  She was successively promoted until receiving production responsibility for the Delta II, III, IV and various aircraft programs.  Ms. Nesselroad has over 20 years cumulative experience in the production, quality assurance and testing of launch vehicles and aircraft.  Ms. Nesselroad has a Bachelor's Degree in Human Resource Management from Faulkner University.

Dr. Koenigsmann is responsible for the avionics, control system and software development at Space Exploration. His experience includes two suborbital launches with newly developed vehicles, a satellite development and launch and several attitude control systems; his specialties are attitude control (in particular magnetic attitude control), orbit and attitude dynamics, systems engineering and guidance and control systems.

Dr. Koenigsmann has served as head of the Space Technology Division of Germany’s Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen. In that role, he was responsible for the development and operation of the satellite BREMSAT.

Dr. Koenigsmann then worked for Microcosm as a Chief Scientist and a Flight Systems Manager for their Scorpius sub-orbital launch vehicles, where he led a team that developed the vehicle’s avionics, guidance and control systems, as well as supported the thrust vector control development. For their Space System Division, he developed satellite attitude control systems, using a variety of control concepts, including wheels and magnetic torquers, for which he received a US patent.

Dr. Koenigsmann has a Ph.D. in Aerospace and Production Technology from the University of Bremen and an M.S. Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin.

Prior to joining SpaceX, Mr. Buzza was the test project manager for Boeing’s Delta IV 1st Stage. His experience includes structural testing of the LH2 and LOX tanks, engine section, Interstage and nosecone, as well as analysis and verification of the booster and stage separation systems. Mr. Buzza was responsible for the schedule and budget for 23 major tests with a total budget of $100 million.

Mr. Buzza has over 14 years of test experience in the aerospace industry ranging from aircraft systems testing (fuel, hydraulics, and environmental) to stage development of a medium to heavy payload rocket. His career has taken him all over the world to most of the major test sites in Europe and America.

Mr. Buzza has a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. His work has been published by ASME and several have culminated into US patents.

Ms. Shotwell’s responsibilities include developing the customer base for SpaceX vehicles and managing strategic relationships. Her experience prior to SpaceX includes over ten years at the Aerospace Corporation where she held positions of increasing responsibility in Space Systems Engineering and Technology, and Project Management. Highlights include promotion to Chief Engineer of an MLV-class Satellite program, managing a landmark study for the Federal Aviation Administration’s on Commercial Space Transportation, and completing an extensive space policy analysis for NASA’s future investment in space transportation. After Aerospace Corporation, Ms. Shotwell was recruited to be manager of the Space Systems Division at Microcosm, where she served on the Executive committee and directed corporate business development.

Ms. Shotwell received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from Northwestern University in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics. She also serves as an officer of the Space Systems Technical Committee of the AIAA and has authored papers in a wide variety of areas including standardizing spacecraft/payload interfaces, conceptual small spacecraft design, infrared signature target modeling, Space Shuttle integration, and reentry vehicle operational risks.

Mr. Reagan is responsible for manufacturing operations at SpaceX. As such, he is tasked with building the world's leading launch vehicle manufacturing capability -- simultaneously ensuring high efficiency, low cost and an adherence to exceptional and consistent product quality.

Before joining SpaceX, Mr. Reagan is most noted for being a key founding executive of Certified Manufacturing, where he was responsible for building and running the manufacturing operations. Certified is acknowledged to be one of the leading outsourced manufacturing companies in North America. In particluar, during his tenure at Certified Mr. Reagan oversaw construction of several critical sub-components of the International Space Station and tooling assemblies for construction of the Space Shuttle External Tank.

Mr. Williams responsibilities include managing governmental affairs and developing the base of international customers and strategic partners. Prior to Space X, he served as Senior Vice President for Business Development for the satellite communications company ICO Global Communications and Vice President of International and Government Affairs for Teledesic Corporation. His government experience includes having served as a special assistant to the administrator of the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a member of the Presidential transition team for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and a legislative assistant to U.S. Rep. Ray Thornton on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Larry is currently a member of the U.S. Council of Foreign Relations and has served on the Board of Directors of the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) and the Satellite Industry Association (SIA). He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and Masters in Business Administration from Georgetown University’s International Executive MBA program.

Dr. DiMaggio has responsibility for the structural dynamics and vehicle environments group at SpaceX. In this capacity he is responsible for launch vehicle dynamic modeling, loads analyses, separation and deployment analyses, structural dynamic testing and definition of vibration, shock and acoustic environments.

Prior to joining SpaceX, Dr. DiMaggio led the mechanical vibrations section of The Aerospace Corporation. His responsibilities there included prediction of vibration, shock and acoustic environments for spacecraft and rockets, rocket engine and turbo-machinery structural dynamics and health monitoring, as well as shock and vibration isolation and reduction. Launch vehicle experience includes Titan, Atlas and Delta. Engine experience includes the Pratt & Whitney RL10, Aerojet LR-87 & LR-91, Boeing Rocketdyne RS-68 and the RD AMROSS RD-180.

Dr. DiMaggio has also taught the graduate and undergraduate structural dynamics courses at Loyola Marymount University. He holds a PhD and MS in Engineering Mechanics and a BS in Civil Engineering, all from Columbia University.

Mr. Richichi is responsible for structural analysis and design at SpaceX. He ensures that our design and analysis team is one of the world’s finest and that our launch vehicle structures establish new benchmarks of reliability and low cost.

With over 20 years experience in the optimization of structures, Mr. Richichi has worked on projects as diverse as the Gulfstream V, a race winning Indy Car and the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Prior to joining SpaceX, he was one a handful of people outside NASA with Stress Signature Authority, authorizing him to sign off on the structural integrity of man-rated components and assemblies before they were launched into space.

Mr. Richichi holds a Mechanical Engineering BS and MS with honors from the University of Houston. He has taught Advanced Structural Analysis courses on both the university and professional levels and holds a patent on low cost aircraft assembly methods.

Mr. Spikes was hired from a similar role at PayPal in February 2003, to bolster the security, reliability, and transaction performance of SpaceX's IT infrastructure.  Responsible for both Information Security and Information Technology at SpaceX, he ensures the company's infrastructure is robust, highly available, responsive, and secure.

Mr. Spikes is an expert in the field, demonstrated by his previous successes as an early employee at startups Zip2 Corp. (a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the media industry) and PayPal, Inc (the world's leading electronic payment system).