Paul Wilde

Dr. Paul Wilde has 20 years of experience in space safety standards development, launch and re-entry safety evaluations, explosive safety analysis, and operations safety. He is currently a technical advisor for the Chief Engineer in FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation and chairman of the Range Commander's Council Risk Committee. He has performed leading roles for multi-organization projects in several high-profile situations. During the Columbia accident investigation, Dr. Paul...See more

Dr. Paul Wilde has 20 years of experience in space safety standards development, launch and re-entry safety evaluations, explosive safety analysis, and operations safety. He is currently a technical advisor for the Chief Engineer in FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation and chairman of the Range Commander's Council Risk Committee. He has performed leading roles for multi-organization projects in several high-profile situations. During the Columbia accident investigation, Dr. Paul Wilde was the principal investigator of public safety issues and provided technical oversight for the foam impact tests. He also performed key roles in the independent flight safety evaluations for the maiden flights of the ATV, Atlas V, Delta IV, Falcon 9-Dragon, Space Ship 1, and the Titan IVB. Dr. Paul Wilde was a leader in the development of several major US regulations and standards on launch and re-entry risk management. For example, he was the lead author for five of the eleven chapters in the US national standard on range operations risk acceptability requirements, rationale, and implementation guidelines. Dr. Paul Wilde was co-chair of the Common Standards Working Group during the development of the FAA regulation on launch safety, and a principal author for the FAA's Flight Safety Analysis Handbook. He has published over 100 technical reports and papers. He received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, Special Congressional Recognition, and several other awards. He is a licensed professional engineer in Texas, with degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California. See less