Hans Koenigsmann

Former VP of Build & Flight Reliability (4th employee)

Hans Koenigsmann (born 1963) is a German aerospace engineer who became SpaceX's fourth technical employee in 2002. He joined as VP of Avionics, later serving as Launch Chief Engineer and then VP of Flight Reliability, responsible for mission safety and failure investigations. He helped develop Falcon 1, Falcon 9, Dragon and Starlink, received NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2014, and retired in 2021.