Bob Ess brings over 35 years of leadership experience across NASA and commercial aerospace to guide the development and execution of Starlab’s next-generation space initiatives. Ess has served as President of Venus Aerospace, where he led company-wide operations and oversaw engineering, flight testing, manufacturing, HR, and program management.

Under his leadership, the company expanded rapidly and implemented high-impact processes to accelerate the development of advanced hypersonic vehicles. Prior to that, Ess held senior leadership roles at Blue Origin, including Senior Director for the New Glenn Programs Office, where he led major initiatives in program management, avionics reorganization, reusability strategies, and business modeling. He played a central role in securing a $500 million Launch Services Agreement with the U.S. Air Force and helped scale New Glenn’s workforce and technical capabilities significantly.

Ess spent nearly three decades at NASA, culminating as the Manager of the Avionics & Software Office for the Orion spacecraft program. He managed a $450M+ annual budget and led more than 600 government and contractor personnel in developing the avionics and software that flew successfully on Orion’s EFT-1 mission.

Earlier in his NASA career, Bob served as Program Manager for the Ares I-X flight test, one of the fastest and most cost-effective rocket development efforts in modern NASA history, later named Time Magazine’s Invention of the Year in 2009. Ess holds a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Houston. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School and a licensed pilot.