Dr. John R. Olds, P.E. –  Bio for 2024 NASA LAA Lecture

Dr. John R. Olds is the founder and retired CEO of Atlanta-based SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc. (SEI). He currently serves as Chairman of the Board and part-time Technical Fellow. Since 2023, he has acted as Managing Partner for his family’s investment group, Tyger River Capital, LLC.

Dr. Olds has over 30 years of experience in the aerospace sector, including positions in private consulting, large aerospace industry, academia, and small business. While an undergraduate student at NC State in 1986, he had the opportunity to spend the summer at NASA Langley’s Vehicle Analysis Branch (VAB) as a member of the first cohort of the new Langley Aerospace Research Summer Scholars (LARSS) program under Dr. Sam Massenberg. Dr. Alan Wilhite was his LARSS technical advisor in VAB. He returned the Langley and the VAB from 1991-93 as an NC State graduate student in-residence to complete his PhD research on multidisciplinary design approaches for high-speed airbreathing launch vehicles. Dr. Gerald Wahlberg was his PhD advisor.

From 1993-95, Dr. Olds served on the NCSU MAE faculty as a visiting assistant professor, active in MAE’s Mars Mission Research Center. From 1995-05, Dr. Olds was a faculty member at Georgia Tech, where he founded and operated the Space Systems Design Lab focused on multidisciplinary design for emerging space systems. Prior to those academic posts, he was an aerospace engineer at General Dynamics’ Space Systems Division, Huntsville, AL. He left his tenured faculty position at Georgia Tech in 2005 to pursue a passion for space entrepreneurship and the NewSpace movement. SpaceWorks Enterprises is now a profitable commercial space company operating in Atlanta, with over $10M in annual gross revenues generated. SpaceWorks performs advanced aerospace design services and technology assessments for NASA, DoD, Darpa & private clients. Through its newer business units, SpaceWorks Enterprises is also developing aerospace software and flight hardware products including unique technologies for hypersonic flight, payload reentry capsules, and CubeSat payloads.

In his professional and academic careers, Dr. Olds has been active in advanced space transportation systems analysis & design with emphasis on the integration of automated software analyses using multidisciplinary analysis techniques. Since 1986, he has authored/co- authored of over 170 technical papers related to conceptual design of advanced space systems. He has led or participated in a wide range of aerospace concept design studies related to advanced launch systems, human exploration missions, LEO-based satellite constellations, lunar resource missions, space solar power satellites, hypersonic flight, and reusable spaceplane concepts. He received both NASA TGIR & NASA Group Achievement awards for his participation in prior NASA space systems design projects. He is a former Fellow of NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) and is an AIAA Associate Fellow.

Dr. Olds holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from NC State University, an M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from NC State University. He is a registered professional engineer in the state of Georgia. In 2018, he was inducted into the NC State Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department Hall of Fame. He is a native of Spartanburg, South Carolina and currently resides in Columbus, North Carolina near Tryon. Dr. Olds and his wife Melinda have one son, Davis.