CI

Christie Iacomini

Technical Leader | Commercial Space & Space Exploration Advocate

Bellevue, Washington

Invests in

Stages:

  • Min Investment:

    $100,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $5,000,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $1,500,000.00

Education

Work Experience

  • Sr Program Manager & Sr Technical Manager, In-Space Infrastructure

    2022

    Oversee technology portfolio, roadmaps and internal research and development programs. Manage NASA-funded Lunar Vertical Solar Array Technology (LVSAT) development resulting in full scale system demonstrations in relevant lunar environments. Formulate and contribute to capture and partnership strategies.

2021 - 2023

  • Advisor

    2022 - 2023

    Assess and advise select aerospace investments, teams and technology.

  • VP of Engineering & Partner

    2021 - 2022

    Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups commercializing technology to reinvent energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture industries. Responsible for leading a team of engineers and scientists in the technical diligence process for vetting potential investments. Supported portfolio companies in IP strategy, non-advocate design reviews, organization growth and hiring.

2016 - 2021

  • Sr Director Descent Element, Human Landing System

    2020 - 2021

    Led the development of the descent stage (a variant of Blue Moon) through PDR as part of the National Team Human Landing System three-vehicle architecture under NASA contract. Included overseeing manufacturing, test and technology development as well as supply chain, budget and schedule. Scaled organization and processes to meet technical milestones.

  • Program Manager Blue Moon Lunar Lander

    2018 - 2020

    Responsible for developing program planning, organizational resources and staff, and system maturation including strategic technology demonstrations and supplier selection. Responsible for budget and schedule. Reported directly to NASA customer for contractual work and SVP of Advanced Development Programs for all else.

  • Sr. Director Advanced Systems

    2018 - 2020

    Supported creation of new Business Unit Advanced Development Programs, establishing engineering processes, training and tools. Responsible for maturing space systems from concept through deployment to new business units. Supported proposal generation. Served as Principal Investigator for two NASA contracts, one developing concepts and market studies for LEO commercialization, and another exploring in situ resource utilization (ISRU) concepts.

  • Fluid Systems Product Group Lead

    2016 - 2018

    Responsible for all engineering efforts required for the development and operation of fluids, thermal control, and life support products on New Shepard suborbital and New Glenn orbital vehicles. Reviewed and authorized engineering. Reviewed all discrepancy reports, investigated root cause and assigned corrective actions. Managed and grew engineering team, including fluids-specialty support in analysis, test and procurement. Collaborated with VP of Engineering and other PGLs to improve engineering processes across the enterprise.

  • Deputy of Customer Delivery

    2015 - 2016

    Responsible for assisting the Chief Operating Officer in execution of the company’s strategy and operational policy across Engineering, Manufacturing, Research & Development and Quality.

  • Program Manager & Project Engineer, Boeing CST-100 Starliner HCS

    2012 - 2016

    Developed the Humidity Control Subassembly from concept through qualification and first flight article delivery. Efforts included - Development testing to demonstrate the design’s water removal performance and vibration/shock tolerance to meet flight requirements. - Managing production of qualification and flight units. - Test Lead overseeing all qualification test efforts including vibration, shock, system performance, proof, pressure cycle and leak testing. - On-budget and on-schedule performance with no requests for program adjustments and meeting all technical requirements.

  • Senior Aerospace Engineer

    2005 - 2016

    Principle Investigator and/or Project Lead of technology development for life support, thermal control, fuel cells and in situ resource utilization. Responsibilities included to - Plan, propose and direct to ensure critical paths were identified and risks were timely/adequately mitigated - Manage modeling, design, manufacturing, testing and reporting with lean technical teams of engineers, manufacturers and technicians - Perform system, thermal and chemical process analyses using advanced thermodynamics/heat transfer analytical relations and numerical modeling - Design and build experimental hardware and test set-ups, develop test procedures and perform test operations from in-house bench testing to full-scale thermal vacuum testing

  • Director of Operational Programs (acting)

    2009 - 2011

    Duties were concurrent with and similar to Director of R&D position but applied to Operational Programs for design, manufacture, and delivery of life critical and flight hardware. Including - Worked with and mediated amongst engineering, manufacturing and quality departments to ensure timely delivery of high quality operational hardware that met technical specifications - Oversaw diverse programs including Constellation Space Suit System (for which Paragon was the thermal lead and a hardware provider), Paragon Dive System (a complete dive system for isolating Navy divers in contaminated water) and Excalibur Almaz (ECLSS design and integration with a Russian spacecraft for commercial access to space)

  • Director of Research and Development

    2008 - 2011

    Created the Research and Development (R&D) department to manage and engender growth of the company and provide proper representation of R&D program needs in the presence of differing and competing needs of manufacturing and flight hardware programs. Specifically - Achieved successful, diverse technology development programs through existing technical experience, ability to learn and apply new concepts, planning and follow-through, establishment of expectations, team communication, identification of critical paths and timely risk mitigation - Collaborated with the Vice President of Engineering in determining and managing scope of internal R&D activities in line with the strategic plan - Ensured all R&D programs met technical, budgetary and schedule expectations by providing Project Leads guidance, formulating mitigation plans if not on target, reviewing major deliverables, and providing technical input to all design and test readiness reviews - Managed technicians and engineers by negotiating assignments relevant to skills sets, tracking productivity and work load, participating in performance reviews, identifying employee potential for growth and/or increased responsibility - Directed and wrote proposals (technical, schedule, costing, and strategy) as well as contributed to review/approval of proposals

  • Research Professor

    2004 - 2005

    Performed experimental and theoretical research in areas of heat transfer, thermodynamics of chemically reacting flows, mass diffusion through porous media Instructor: AME 424 An Introduction to Space Technologies – a senior-level course covering in situ resource utilization (ISRU), rocketry, space power, spacecraft thermal design, the space environment and orbital mechanics Managed the Space Technologies Laboratory

  • Aerospace Engineer

    1996 - 1999

    X-38 Parafoil Principal Investigator responsible for modeling, simulation, flight testing and analysis of parafoil systems and aerodynamics Lead Parafoil Pilot and Mission Commander for test flights Designed interplanetary transfer trajectories

  • Aerospace Engineering Co-op Student

    1989 - 1996

    Intern for eight semesters supporting a variety of projects: Lunar and Mars mission trajectory analyses, Lunar guidance and control algorithm development, Space Shuttle operations, and Space Station experiment-induced dynamics analysis and modeling. Founder, JSC Co-op Certificate of Appreciation for Mentors

  • Graduate Research Assistant

    1994 - 1996

    Focus area in orbital mechanics - First to demonstrate the feasibility of relative positioning between two GPS receivers in LEO - Demonstrated Space Shuttle orbit determination using GPS to a position accuracy < 10 m - Integrated and tested flight hardware on the WSF at Kennedy Space Center, Orlando, FL and served as payload flight controller for GPS Wake Shield Facility (WSF) experiment on STS-69