Senior Principal Mars Landing Engineer

Lars Blackmore

As Senior Principal Mars Landing Engineer at SpaceX, Lars Blackmore leads vehicle-level development of Starship’s entry and landing system. Lars pioneered the “bellyflop” style of unpowered flight in which the spacecraft flies similarly to a skydiver, using its belly to protect the engines from extreme heating, then executes a flip that allows the vehicle to land vertically under engine power.

Lars joined SpaceX in 2011, initially serving as senior GNC engineer before leading the interdisciplinary team who made the Falcon 9 first stage capable of landing.

Prior to SpaceX, Lars worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, where he co-invented the G-FOLD algorithm for precision vertical landing on Mars. He also developed control algorithms and flight software for the Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, currently in orbit.

Lars received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from Cambridge University, and a PhD in control and estimation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Senior Director, Starship Reliability

Shana Diez

Shana Diez is the Senior Director of Starship Reliability at SpaceX, where she is responsible for managing all vehicle, launch pad, and operational risk for the Starship program. She oversees risk mitigation for operations from pre-flight through post-flight safing as well as anomaly resolution, while also working closely with the Federal Aviation Administration to drive strategy and execution of all Starship launch licensing. Shana is also responsible for reliability of hardware built in the factory at SpaceX’s Starbase, Texas, manufacturing facility.

Shana joined SpaceX in 2007 as an analyst on thermal fluids for Merlin engines. She later led analysis on the Dragon spacecraft’s Draco thrusters as well as the vehicle’s propulsion systems, before becoming manager of reusability development, where her team contributed to the development of Falcon 9 becoming the first orbital class rocket to land for future reuse. In 2017, Shana became Director of Engineering Change, driving the revamp of new tools and processes that enabled an increased flight rate for both Falcon 9 and Dragon. Three years later, Shana transitioned full-time into the Starship program, leading teams in production and vehicle operations before moving into her current role with the Starship team.

Shana earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Senior Vice President, Falcon and Dragon

Jon Edwards

Jon Edwards is the Senior Vice President of Falcon and Dragon at SpaceX, where he is responsible for the design, performance, operations, and program strategy of the Falcon rockets and Dragon spacecraft — the systems that form the backbone of the world’s most active orbital launch enterprise.

Jon joined SpaceX in 2004 as a propulsion development engineer. As responsible engineer for the Falcon 1 second stage and Kestrel engine, he contributed to Falcon 1’s successful orbital launch in 2008 and to the early development of Dragon. He later served as responsible engineer for the Falcon 9 second stage, contributing to the rocket’s first successful launch in 2010. He went on to become the Falcon 9 Product Director, where he led the program through the first successful recovery of an orbital-class rocket booster – a breakthrough that proved rockets could return from space and fly again. Jon subsequently served as Vice President of Falcon Engineering, helping turn that first recovery into routine reuse and establishing Falcon 9 as the most reliable and rapidly reusable rocket in history.

With more than two decades at SpaceX, Jon has led the development of Falcon Heavy, secured Falcon 9’s human-rating certification, advanced rapid reusability to qualify the Falcon booster and fairings for up to 40 flights each, and built the teams behind SpaceX’s industry-leading launch cadence.

Jon earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Indiana University.

Director, Crew Starship Engineering

Eduardo Velazquez

Eduardo Velazquez is the Director of Crew Starship engineering at SpaceX, overseeing the engineering, architecture, production, integration, and testing of Starship vehicles supporting human spaceflight, including the spacecraft that will return humans and cargo to the Moon, commercial low-Earth orbit, and cislunar spaceflight.

Joining SpaceX in 2011 as a manager of multibody dynamics, Eduardo served as the technical lead for the Vehicle Simulations Group responsible for the analysis of major kinematic structures in the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, as well as astronaut logistics during all phases of flight. Eduardo has helped design Falcon 9’s landing legs, the payload and stage separation systems, along with Dragon’s solar arrays, parachutes, and heatshield. As senior manager, he created and led analysis for composite materials, dynamics, loads, and multibody analysis, before overseeing the design and testing of flight-proven hardware. Prior to his current role, Eduardo directly led the Human Landing System engineering team for lunar and crew-specific systems.

Eduardo received his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from San Diego State University and earned his master’s degree and PhD from the University of California San Diego. He has served in various positions for the California chapters of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.