Dave Gingerich

Dave Gingerich, M.S., is an affiliate professor in the Department of Aviation and Aerospace Management at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Gingerich has been employed with Lockheed Martin since 1980 where he developed simulation software used to test the power and attitude control subsystems for two large, earth-orbiting spacecraft; developed spacecraft bus and instrument flight software for numerous planetary exploration missions and payloads, such as the Descent Imager, the Cassini-Huygens Probe and the Mars Observer Gamma Ray Spectrometer. In the early 1990s Gingerich was a member of the flight software development team for the marvelously successful and still flying Mars Global Surveyor.

In 1997, he started developing the payload and science flight software for the Stardust and Genesis missions and was asked to join the LMA Mission Operations team. In 2002, Gingerich implemented a change to the Stardust Navigation Camera flight software and was presented a Technical Excellence award for it from Lockheed Martin in 2003. He is also the recipient of several NASA Group Achievement awards.

Gingerich received a master’s in space operations management from Webster University in 2004, a master’s in mechanical engineering from Colorado State University in 1980 and a bachelor’s in mathematics in 1979 from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.