Jim Cantrell

Cantrell was born and raised in Yucaipa, California, and went to high school in San Jose, California. In 1983 he enrolled at Utah State University for a BS in electrical engineering but later changed to mechanical engineering. Alongside his BS, he worked as a research engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for one year starting in 1987.[7] At JPL, he worked on Mars exploration technologies including Mars Rover and Mars Balloon missions.[8] He completed his BS in 1988 and started work on his MS in mechanical engineering at Utah State University, while working as a research engineer at the University's Space Dynamics Laboratory, again focusing on Mars exploration.[9]

Cantrell joined the French Space Agency (CNES) in 1990 after completing his MS. He went to France to work on a joint French-Soviet Mars program and supported development of the Mars Snake for the Mars 94/96 balloon mission.[3] He returned to the U.S. in 1992 to join Space Dynamics Laboratory, where he led the spacecraft systems engineering on three small satellites for Department of Defense. He also worked on various joint missile defense programs conducted between America and Russia. Cantrell was promoted to the position of director program development in 1997.[10]

In 2001, Cantrell started independent consulting and served as the program manager for the privately funded solar sail program known as Cosmos 1.[11] The same year, Elon Musk approached him seeking his help in sending a mission to Mars using Russian rockets because of their low price as compared to the US rockets. When Musk and Cantrell approached Russians, they refused to sell them rockets and Musk decided to build his own.[12] Musk founded SpaceX with the help of Cantrell and asked him to serve as the Vice President of Business Development. Cantrell started working at SpaceX but left in September 2002. While at the company he helped in the development of Falcon 1 launch vehicle.[13]

After leaving SpaceX, Cantrell founded Strategic Space Development, an aerospace and technology consultancy and took on the position of president and CEO.[14] One of the significant projects undertaken by Strategic Space was the Light Sail project headed by The Planetary Society where Cantrell served as project manager from 2008 through 2012. Strategic Space participated in over 46 spacecraft developments including NuStar, Juno, Skybox Imaging, and Iceye X-1.[15] In 2010, the founders of Moon Express approached Cantrell seeking his help to develop a business offering commercial lunar robotic transportation. Cantrell became a member of the founding team of Moon Express and subsequently became the CTO of the company. Moon Express was selected by Forbes as one of the "Names You Should Know" in 2011.[16][17]

During his tenure at Strategic Space, Cantrell also became involved in the technical and financial development of several startups including Skybox Imaging, Atlas Ground Systems, Iceye, PlanetIQ, York Space Systems, and Black Sky.[15]

In 2013, Cantrell was hired as the CEO of IDair, a biometric authentication technology company, to turn the company around and settle existing legal disputes.[18] As CEO, he reorganized the firm and led product development efforts at the company. He stepped down from the position in 2014 after obtaining a $17M settlement in IDair's favor.[19]

In 2015, Cantrell approached John Garvey with a business idea to develop a Micro Launch Vehicles to service the micro-satellite community. Vector purchased Garvey's company, Garvey Spacecraft, to jumpstart launch vehicle development and speed up time to market.[20] Cantrell stepped down as CEO of Strategic Space Development (now known as StratSpace) to serve as the CEO of Vector.[21] By late 2019, Vector had raised $100 million in venture funding and $2.5 million in contracts. The company originally planned to launch its first orbital vehicle by mid 2018 but development problems delayed the first launch until mid 2020.[22][21] In August 2019, one of Vector's major investors pulled out causing a mass layoff of Vector’s 180 employees.[23]

Throughout his career, Cantrell served on corporate boards of several companies in the aerospace industry. In 2004, he became a board member at the Paragon Space Development Corporation and served there until 2013. He was on the Planetary Society's board of advisors from 2007 to 2012. He has also served on ATLAS Space Board of Advisors, Morf3D Board of Advisors, Iceye, and York Space Systems Board of Advisors. Cantrell also served on source selection panels for NASA reviewing proposals for deep space and space science missions for 15 years.[3]