Former Astronaut Ken Bowersox joins SpaceX

Space Exploration Technologies, SpaceX, this week announced Ken Bowersox will become vice president of the newly formed Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance Department. He will be co-located in Houston, while SpaceX Headquarters remains in Hawthorne, Calif.

Bowersox joins SpaceX with more that 19 years of experience at NASA. Selected to the astronaut corps in 1987, he has flown five times on the shuttle, serving as pilot, commander and mission specialist. He flew once on a Russian Soyuz, where he served as the flight engineer during descent.

During his five orbital missions, Bowersox has logged over 211 days in space, including five and a half months aboard the International Space Station, where he was the mission commander of Expedition 6. He was also a crew member for the first two Hubble Space Telescope repair flights and two United States Microgravity Laboratory flights.

Subsequent to his mission aboard the ISS, Bowersox served as the director of the Johnson Space Center’s Flight Crew Operations Directorate, where he was responsible for the NASA Astronaut Office and all aircraft operations at the Johnson Space Center. Most recently, Bowersox worked as an independent aerospace consultant, serving on the NASA standing review boards for the shuttle, ISS, Constellation, Orion and the Constellation Suit System.

"Ken Bowersox is a critical asset to the SpaceX team, as we prepare for crewed missions aboard our Dragon spacecraft," Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of SpaceX, said in a statement. "His experience in the U.S. astronaut corps, and aboard the International Space Station, will be invaluable in shaping the future of commercial manned spaceflight."