Team

We enjoy solving hard problems and are passionate about opening up the solar system to humanity.

Mike Grace
Chief Executive Officer

After serving in the Army Mike studied economics and found himself, inexplicably, doing astrobiology internship at NASA Ames. That ended up turning into a job, a wife, a master’s degree in genetics, and several stints at aerospace and biotech startups.

Mike enjoys board games and wearing inflatable t-rex costumes to events where they are not really appropriate.

Nathan Saichek
Chief Technology Officer

Nato has two decades worth of experience in aerospace startups spanning research, engineering, and program management. He most recently finished a stint at Astra leading the integration of Rocket 3.3. Nato enjoys his blind dog Reece, three-legged cat Momo, leopard gecko Spot, and listening to Mike’s bad ideas.

Brendan Conway
Chief Operating Officer

Brendan handles operations, government sales, and various other miscellaneous business tasks that keep Longshot running. Brendan likes to paint plastic army toys in his garage, read history books, and annoy his coworkers when he talks about those books.

Porsche Parker
Operations Manager

Porsche worked many roles at nearby NASA Ames, and now helps Longshot keep things rolling smoothly.

Todd Kelmar
Lead Systems Engineer

Todd has a MSc in Aerospace Engineering, with published research spanning a breath of interests from Ancient Mayan Concrete to Machine Learning for Modal Testing.  An avid birder and wildlife photographer, he enjoys spending his free time along the marshlands of the bay area.

Marius Mayer
Technical Project Manager

Marius is an experienced aircraft and maintenance technician with a background in Aerospace Engineering, having led teams across continents and contributed to cutting-edge MRI technology in Silicon Valley. He grew up in a 200-person village in rural Germany and developed a love for DJing, Soccer, and Crime Documentaries.

Josh Gordonson
Senior Electrical Engineer

Josh has 20 years of professional experience in electrical engineering and freelancing, has worked on projects ranging from eradicating polio in Nigeria to building flying electric vehicles in Silicon Valley, and holds two degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT. Josh is also a founder of the Bay Area Makerfarm (a 501c3 free public urban farm and makerspace), where he propagates trees, plays music in a punk band, captures and upcycles valuables from the bay area waste stream, and slowly but steadily attempts to chip away at capitalism.

Jason Rosslein
Mechanical Engineer

Jason cut his teeth at Musk Industries (SpaceX & Tesla) before entering the world of startups, first with electric powertrains, and now back to his aerospace roots.  Outside of work he likes to run, bike, & ski around - scheming about all of the above over coffee or a beer after, sometimes both.

Lawrence Sheets
Mechanical Engineer

Lawrence’s unconventional career path encompasses sports medicine, software development, audio engineering, solar panel manufacturing, and mechanical engineering.  He is an accomplished pianist and drummer, an avid hiker, and has built and test-fired two 500 lbf thrust liquid bi-propellant rocket engines.

Alex Stroud
Industrial Engineer

Alex is an aerospace manufacturing engineer who has worked on life support and propulsion systems for crew dragon and is now applying his fluids and thermal engineering experience to building the premier hypersonic kinetic launch company in the industry. Alex will endlessly complain to you how Buffalo pizza and wings are superior to anything found in the bay area.

Dave Fontaine
Technician

Dave is a former network consulting engineer and system administrator turned off-grid pioneer and carpenter, with a knack for event coordination and operations. He's a fan of hard science fiction, van-life adventures, and rock climbing, and if you're lucky, you might catch him twirling flower sticks under a moon glow at a festival.

Gus Jauregui
Technician

Gus is a technician at Longshot and a person of many skills and he puts all of them to good use in greasing the wheel at Longshot to keep things operating smoothly. Gus is an Oakland native and loves life on two wheels.   He is inspired by the outdoors and is always ready for new adventures.   Loving life with his wife, dog and motorcycles.

Simon Saichek
Machinist & Technician

Simon, a former whitewater rafting guide and outdoor enthusiast, has been bewitched by the Longshot shop where he is a machinist, fabricator and production autodidact. He bikes everywhere, bakes sourdough regularly and attends far too many baseball games.