David Goldstein

Principal Engineer

David Goldstein is a Principal Engineer at SpaceX, working as a principal guidance, navigation and control engineer, and a retired Colonel of the United States Air Force. He acts as the company's ambassador to government agencies and satellite owner-operators on satellite collision avoidance and space safety, leads SpaceX's integration with the Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron and NASA's Conjunction Assessment and Risk Analysis (CARA) programme, and develops satellite guidance, navigation and control algorithms. He graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science in 1988 and holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and three master's degrees. He served 27 years in the Air Force and retired as a Colonel in January 2016. His final assignment was Director of the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate and Commander of the Phillips Research Site at Kirtland Air Force Base, after technical leadership assignments in satellite science and technology, research and development, test and evaluation, payload integration, systems engineering, acquisition and launch operations.