Richard Zappulla

Richard Zappulla II is an accomplished astronautical engineer with a Ph.D. from the Naval Postgraduate School and an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. During his academic tenure at Georgia Tech, Richard worked on the Prox-1 Nano-satellite, where he contributed significantly to the Command& Data Handling/Flight Software Subsystem, and finally, on the Guidance, Navigation, and Control for the Prox-1 proximity operations mission. The Prox-1 mission is set to carry the Planetary Society's Lightsail spacecraft and scheduled to launch in 2016 on the STP-2 mission.

At the Naval Postgraduate School, Richard was part of the Spacecraft Robotics Laboratory (SRL) where he worked on high-precision guidance algorithms utilizing floating spacecraft simulators. In addition to being an active researcher, Richard updated the real-time embedded operating systems and software on the FSSs to enable more robust and reliable testing.

Richard has extensive work experience, having served as a GNC Engineer at Georgia Tech, Engineering Consultant at HEICO Aerospace, and Research & Test Lead at Georgia Tech, among other positions. He is multitalented and is interested in areas such as robotics, spacecraft guidance, navigation and control, and spacecraft autonomy.