Edgar Zapata

Edgar Zapata was born and raised in NYC. In 1988 he received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez. His career with NASA began at the Kennedy Space Center that same year with the Space Shuttle program. Leveraging the Shuttle experience, Mr. Zapata represented the NASA operations perspective in multitudes of agency level studies, working groups, analysis, future programs and strategic efforts. In his career with NASA, he has been the recipient of numerous awards, for his work improving Space Shuttle operations processes and for his contributions to future space launch and space systems, especially the introduction of an operations and engineering perspective into advanced technology, projects and analysis. Cross-cutting experience from flight to ground systems, in the life cycle of projects from development to operations, and across technology and disciplines, Mr. Zapata has published numerous papers providing innovative, system level views atop strong foundations of critical analysis and assessment. In 2021, after 32+ years, starting with the Space Shuttle and ending with the DARPA Experimental Space Plane (XSP), Mr. Zapata retired from NASA.

His on-going publication, “The State of Play – US Space Systems Competitiveness” will build on his work at NASA, fusing space systems data on competitiveness, productivity and other measures of launchers and spacecraft with context and expertise that creates value and provides insight.