As well as being SpaceDev's Business Team Manager for Propulsion Systems, Frank Macklin is also the VP of Engineering for SpaceDev California and previously held the title of chief engineer, hybrid propulsion. Mr. Macklin was Chief Engineer and led SpaceDev�s contribution to the development of the hybrid motor that powered Scaled Composite�s SpaceShipOne which made the first commercial astronauts and won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004. He was also technical leader for SpaceDev�s NRO funded SPOTV Hybrid System Definition study, and was chief engineer for SpaceDev�s orbital Maneuvering and Transfer Vehicle (MoTV) Hybrid Technology.
Mr. Macklin was a founder of Integrated Space Systems, Inc. (ISS) in 1994, which was later acquired by, and became the initial work force for, SpaceDev in 1998. Prior to helping found ISS, Mr. Macklin worked at the General Dynamics Space Systems Division in San Diego. During his tenure at General Dynamics, Macklin integrated a new guidance system onto the new generation of Atlas launch vehicles and became intimately familiar with all aspects of vehicle flight software and hardware. He also designed and implemented diverse ground guidance performance and analysis software systems, became a complete end-to-end systems expert serving as the guidance system expert on the elite "tiger team" sent to support all launches.
Prior to General Dynamics, Mr. Macklin served as a member of the Peacekeeper developmental launch team at Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB), where he was responsible for the $30M guidance and control system, led a group of 30 industry engineers and gave the final guidance system go/no-go for launch.
Mr. Macklin is a California State registered professional electrical engineer with more than 20 years of experience with launch vehicles, ground launch control systems, launch sites and launch teams. |