Richard Petras

Richard Petras has extensive experience in the software engineering field, with a focus on avionics software. Richard is currently serving as the Director Avionics Software at VAST since February 2023. Prior to this, they held the position of Head of Avionics Software at Launcher starting from May 2020. From February 2017 to November 2018, they worked as an Embedded System Software Engineer at Berkeley Applied Analytics. Richard also held various roles at Velodyne LiDAR, Inc., Space Exploration Technologies, and JPL (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory), where they worked as a Senior Software Engineer and Avionics Software Engineer respectively. Richard'swork experience spans over two decades, dating back to January 1996.

Richard Petras received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University in 1985. Richard then pursued further education and completed a Master of Science degree in Space Science from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 1994.