Rishabh Maharaja

Chief Technology Officer/Board Member/Prof Capitol Tech University, Laurel, MD

Mr. Rishabh Maharaja is an adjunct professor at Capitol Technology University (CTU) in the

Astronautical Engineering Department. Mr. Maharaja has been teaching CTU since 2010. At

CTU, Mr. Maharaja is the concept developer and a founding member of CTU’s Space Flight

Operations Training Center (SFOTC). From 2014-2018, Mr. Maharaja was the Principal

Investigator of (3) sounding rocket flights from CTU where he led the development and launch

of three of CTU’s sounding rocket payloads from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility as a part of the

ROCKSAT-X program. In addition, from 2014-2021, Mr. Maharaja advised and mentored

students on a CUBESAT project at CTU. The CUBESAT called CACTUS-1 launched in 2021.

Mr. Maharaja owns a Patent in IP-Based Satellite Command, Control and Data Transfer. Mr.

Maharaja servs as the Chief Technology Officer at Krionics-Space. In addition, Mr. Maharaja

currently serves as a Management and Program Analyst at the Federal Aviation Administration’s

Commercial Space Transportation Office, where he supports the development of space policies,

space laws (regulations), and advisory circulars. Mr. Maharaja at NASA has served as a

Systems Review Manager (SRM) in the Systems Review Office (SRO) at NASA’s Goddard

Space Flight Center (GSFC). Mr. Maharaja has over 15 years of experience at GSFC in Flight

Operations, Ground Systems Development, Systems Engineering, Mission Operations

Assurance Engineering (MOAE), and Software Assurance Engineering (SAE). From 2018-2023,

Mr. Maharaja was the lead MOAE for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Space

Science Mission Operations (SSMO), and Capture Control Return Sample (CCRS). From 2010-

2018, working for Honeywell/KBRwyle, Mr. Maharaja served as the Deputy Flight Operations

Team Lead on the Earth Observing 1 (EO-1), and Fermi Gamma Ray Telescope (FGST)

Missions.

Mr. Maharaja earned an Associate in Applied Sciences Engineering in Electronics Engineering

Technology in 2010, a Bachelor in Astronautical Engineering and a Master of Science in

Astronautical Engineering, in 2013, all from CTU. He also earned a Masters of International

Policy and Practice from the George Washington University in 2021 with a focus on Space

Policy, Space Law, Human Health in Space, Space Economics, and Conflict Resolution.

Maharaja in Media: