William Gerstenmaier Vice President, Build and Flight Reliability SpaceX

As Vice President of Build and Flight Reliability, William H. Gerstenmaier leads SpaceX’s quality engineering andprocess development teams, oversees the launch readiness process, and serves as Chief Engineer on select missions. He and his team provide an independent assessment of launch risks, identifying and resolving anomalies during integration and launch itself; manage the overall change, workflow, and issues systems for SpaceX; and provide engineering development support to the Starship, Starlink, Falcon, and Dragon programs.

Prior to joining SpaceX, William served as the associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In this position, he provided strategic direction for all aspects of NASA's human exploration of space and cross-agency space support functions of space communications and space launch vehicles. He provided programmatic direction for the operation and utilization of the International Space Station and its crew; development of the Gateway, Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft; and providedstrategic guidance and direction for the commercial crew and cargo programs.

William began his career at NASA in 1977, at the then Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, performing aeronautical research to develop the calibration curves for the air data probes used during entry on the Space Shuttle. Throughout the next forty years, William oversaw the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle (OMV) Operations Office, Systems Division; led the SpaceShuttle/Space Station Freedom Assembly Operations Office, Operations Division; served as Shuttle/Mir Program operations manager; managed the Space Shuttle Program Integration; and served as the ISS Program manager. Named associate administrator for the Space Operations Directorate in 2005, William directed the safe completion of the last 21 Space Shuttle missions that witnessed assembly completion of the International Space Station.

William studied at the United States Naval Academy before transferring to Purdue University, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering with an emphasis in propulsion and later an honorary PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering. He also attended the University of Toledo, receiving a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. William was elected into the 2018 class of the National Academy of Engineering. Throughout his career, he has received multiple awards.