David Giger

David Giger is the current VP of Engineering at Relativity Space. David has also co-founded Global Space Ventures and served as Senior Director of Dragon Engineering at SpaceX.

David has over 15 years of experience in the aerospace industry. David has developed and qualified the hypergolic propellant rocket engine, Draco, which has flown successfully on every Dragon mission to date. David also led the Falcon 1 rocket flight 1 engine failure investigation and subsequently was a Test Director for Kestrel engine testing and integrated Falcon 1 2nd Stage hot-fire testing.

At SpaceX, David led the Dragon program, directing a team of over 200 engineers in the design, development, testing and manufacturing of the Dragon spacecraft. Carried the overall engineering responsibilities for the first flight of the Dragon spacecraft to low earth orbit in 2010 and for its rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station (ISS) in May 2012. David was also responsible for leading the Dragon 2 upgrade for flying up to 7 astronauts as part of the $2.6 billion contract award to SpaceX for the NASA Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) program.

David Giger has a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland.

Their manager is Zachary Dunn, SVP, Engineering & Manufacturing. They work with Michael Hoganson - Senior Mechanical Systems Engineer, Bryce Salmi - Lead Avionics Hardware Engineer, and John Rising - Director of Vehicle Engineering.