Joe Cassady – Executive Director for Space Programs, Aerojet Rocketdyne Mr. Cassady is the Executive Director of Space Programs in the Washington DC Operations for Aerojet Rocketdyne where he helps oversee strategy development and architectures for future space and launch systems. He obtained his BS and MS degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Systems Engineering from the George Washington University. Mr. Cassady led flight project teams for the ESEX arcjet system (which still holds the record as the highest power electric propulsion system flown) and the EO-1 Pulsed Plasma Thruster system and has served on a number of advisory groups for NASA and the DoD. He is a Corresponding Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, and serves as vice-president of the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society and as Executive Vice President of ExploreMars, a 501c(3) non-profit dedicated to promoting STEM and human Mars exploration.