Dan Rasky

Dan Rasky is an expert in Materials, Designs, Programs and Team Building for extreme environments. This includes: - Invented and developed an advanced heat-shield material (PICA) that enabled the NASA Stardust Comet Sample Return Mission. The capsule from this mission made the fastest entry ever of a man-made object at Earth (12.9 km/sec),and is now on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, as part of the "Milestones of Flight" exhibit. Awarded the NASA Inventor of the Year (the first ever for NASA Ames) for this accomplishment. - Performed tech-transfer of PICA to SpaceX as requested by Elon Musk for use for their Dragon capsule heat-shield, along with setup of a complete world class Thermal Protection System development and fabrication laboratory, starting literally with an empty room. Production capability for the heat-shield came on-line ahead of schedule, and the heat-shield has preformed beautifully for the all the missions flown by SpaceX to date. - Established the innovative programmatic foundation for the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. This program has been one of the most successful in NASA's recent history, reducing development costs by a factor of 10 compared to traditional programs, and yielding savings over $3 billion. COTS was also instrumental in the successful development of the SpaceX Falcon-9/Dragon, and the Orbital Sciences Antares/Cygnus launch systems now servicing the International Space Station. Awarded Presidential Meritorious Senior Professional for this work and other support of the emerging commercial space industry. - Co-founded the Space Portal in the NASA Research Park to serve as the "Friendly Front Door" to non-traditional companies and organizations interested in working with NASA. The Space Portal has been instrumental in NASA adopting a new space commercial development focus.