Valves & Components
Responsible Engineer
Role Overview
As a Responsible Engineer on the Falcon 9 Components team, I served as the primary engineer for seven valve families, including regulators, solenoids, and pneumatically piloted and actuated valves, each with diverse flight critical performance. I supported this hardware from build through flight operations. Through close collaboration with vendors and internal manufacturing teams, I resolved yield and performance variation issues by providing on-site technical support and feedback, aligning process improvements with design intent. This deep technical ownership and continuous communication ensured hardware readiness for rapid vehicle turnaround to support Falcon 9’s record breaking production and launch rate
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In addition to life cycle support, I led the development and execution of unique qualification campaigns meeting SpaceX and NASA standards, expanding certified valve life from 20 to 40 flights. I gained hands-on experience with safely executing tests involving cryogenics, high pressure, and dynamic environments. I drove root cause investigations integrating data review and diagnostic performance testing to drive corrective actions and evaluate vehicle and fleet risk.
Key Skills
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End-to-End Hardware Ownership
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Flight-critical Risk Evaluation
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Cross-team & Cross-site communication
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Test Design & Execution (High pressure, cryo, vobe)
Experience
NX, Matlab, Python, Matlab,
Pressure Testing, test & fixture
Key Project Overviews
Valve Launch-Site Test Failure
Problem
Pre-launch testing flagged an actuation pressure failure of the Falcon 9 LOx Vent Valve, which safeguards LOx tank structural limits by operating within a narrow pressure range. The test was first implemented as a pre-flight screen for a reduced actuation pressure risk observed in the valve’s original qualification campaign. Without a clear understanding of root-cause, the test failure threatened flight readiness and fleet reliability.
Action
I led a root-cause investigation to validate hardware health and assess fleet-wide risk. I audited the test process, interviewed launch site engineers, and identified key flaws in the setup: manual gauge readings and subjective flow detection in a high-noise environment. Further review of previous launch-site test results showed variation in performance, but no patterns of degradation across 80 operations.
To evaluate hardware health, I repeated the launch site test with digital gauges, drove inspections, and expanded performance testing to compare against baseline build results. Results indicated nominal performance. I re-executed these operations on two additional high-flight-count valves, utilizing Falcon’s active vehicle fleet to further verify launch-site test results. This evaluation confirmed no degraded performance and uncovered internal surface corrosion, a variable not captured in the original qualification. I drove testing on an isolated qualification unit and identified corrosion’s stabilizing influence on actuation pressure.
Results
My investigation revealed the root cause to be a flawed test set up. Using my data review and testing results, I developed formal NASA-approved technical rationale to delete the flawed test and replace it with a targeted inspection to characterize corrosion across the fleet.
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Safety: Eliminated a pressurized ground test that posed unnecessary operational risk.
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Reliability: Improved flight confidence by identifying and addressing a latent corrosion mechanism
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Efficiency: Replaced a lengthy, repeat-prone test with a short, deterministic inspection. Saved hundreds of technician labor hours annually and streamlined prelaunch processing.