Our Mission
Our mission is to help propel humanity into space, supporting commercial space, the warfighter, and the future of human spaceflight by bringing rigorous engineering to every challenge and measurable value to every task.
Meet Our Team
Emerson Oliver
Emerson Oliver founded Moonshot Aerospace and leads its technical strategy. With more than 20 years of GN&C experience across launch vehicles, strategic missile systems, and lunar spacecraft, Emerson served as Navigation Design Lead for NASA's Space Launch System and as GN&C lead for human landing system and strategic defense programs. Emerson is an invited member of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) GN&C Technical Discipline Team and a recipient of the NASA Silver Snoopy Award, and holds an MS in Aerospace Engineering.
Kelly Barber
Kelly Barber is Moonshot's Chief Engineer, with more than 20 years of experience in dynamics, electro-mechanical systems, multi-body modeling and simulation, control systems, and hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) test hardware and software development and execution. Current roles include GN&C 6DOF technical lead, docking dynamics subject matter expert, and spacecraft dynamics lead. Kelly has supported every U.S. docking system currently in service, along with multiple human-rated and payload-class lunar landers, and is a recipient of multiple NASA Spaceflight Awareness and Elite Team Awards. Kelly holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Electrical Engineering, from Auburn University.
Mike Crawford
Mike Crawford specializes in trajectory optimization, high-fidelity 6DOF simulation, and Monte Carlo performance analysis for lunar descent and landing, supporting NASA Human Landing System and commercial lunar lander programs. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Mike holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering.
Alexa Ling
Alexa Ling is a GN&C engineer with experience in modeling, simulation, and analysis on aerospace programs including Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) and the Human Landing System. Alexa develops 6DOF simulations, implements navigation systems, models sensors (IMU, star tracker, LiDAR), and builds fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) algorithms as a strong C/C++, Python, and MATLAB/Simulink developer. Alexa holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University.
Shelby Oliver
Shelby Oliver has been Director of Administration at Moonshot Aerospace since 2021, managing payroll, accounting, human resources, invoicing, and internal operations. A prior career as a medical technologist in diagnostic laboratories brings a strong foundation in accuracy, compliance, and process management to the company, where she serves as the primary point of contact for employee administrative matters.
Rachel Twigg
Rachel Twigg is a dynamics and simulation engineer focused on docking interactions between space vehicles, with additional experience in data analysis. Rachel develops dynamic docking and contact simulations and performs Monte Carlo, vibration, loads, and finite element analyses using MATLAB, Python, and C, with tools including MSC Adams, Nastran, and FEMAP. Rachel holds a BS in Marine Biology from Auburn University and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Sam McConnell
Sam McConnell is a guidance and control engineer whose contributions have flown on three separate lunar missions, including one on which he served as the primary guidance and control architect. He has performed significant design work on additional missions, including human-rated low Earth orbit (LEO) vehicles, with core expertise in nonlinear GN&C algorithm development, trajectory optimization, Kalman and particle filter navigation, and flight software development. Sam holds ME and BS degrees in Aerospace Engineering.
Leah Hall
Leah Hall specializes in advanced geospatial algorithm development for lunar exploration. She served as the Artemis Lunar Surface Navigation Lead with Flight Operations Directorate at NASA. She was a certified instructor in lunar field navigation, extravehicular mobility units (EMU), and ISS airlock systems. Leah has driven the ideation and implementation of flight control geospatial solutions adopted by NASA management, trained ISS and Artemis flight controllers, and managed critical ISS avionics and communications real-time operations. A U.S. Navy veteran Gunner's Mate, Leah holds an MS in Geosensing Systems Engineering and Sciences, a Geographic Information Systems certification from the University of Houston and a BS in Mathematics with a minor in Geoscience.
Jayson Figueroa
Jayson Figueroa specializes in GN&C algorithm design and implementation, and 6DOF simulation development. Jayson holds an MEng and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.