Grant Bonin

01Profile

Grant Bonin has spent two decades building small spacecraft — and the teams and businesses around them. His work spans mission design, spacecraft systems engineering, propulsion, and executive leadership, with contributions to more than fifty space missions.

He began at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies' Space Flight Laboratory, where he managed satellite missions including the CanX-4/CanX-5 nanosatellite formation-flying demonstration. He went on to serve as Chief Technology Officer of Deep Space Industries, Chief Engineer of Space Systems at Rocket Lab, and Senior Vice President of Business Development at Spaceflight Inc. In 2022 he co-founded gravityLab in Seattle to tackle one of the unsolved problems of long-duration spaceflight: gravity itself.

He holds a master's degree in aerospace science and engineering from the University of Toronto and a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Carleton University. He also mentors early-stage founders through the Creative Destruction Lab.

02Career

1. 2022 —

   gravityLab Co-founder & CEO

   Seattle-based company developing spacecraft that produce programmable artificial gravity — spin-stabilized vehicles with extendable booms that can sustain lunar, Martian, or intermediate gravity levels for life-science and technology payloads. First demonstration mission, gLab-1, in development.

2. 2020 – 22

   Spaceflight Inc. SVP, Business Development

   Led business development for the rideshare and orbital-transfer provider. Drove new products including Sherpa-LTE — the first all-electric orbital transfer vehicle, launched June 2021 — and the GEO Pathfinder offering.

3. 2019 – 20

   Rocket Lab Chief Engineer, Space Systems

   Established Rocket Lab's space systems group and led development of the Photon satellite platform; served as technical lead for the proposal that became NASA's CAPSTONE lunar mission.

4. 2016 – 19

   Deep Space Industries Chief Technology Officer

   Directed technology for the asteroid-resources company, including the Comet water-based propulsion line flown on commercial smallsat constellations, and served as mission prime for HawkEye 360's first Pathfinder cluster.

5. mid-2000s – 16

   UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory Manager of Satellite Missions

   A decade of nanosatellite and microsatellite engineering at the University of Toronto, including project management and lead engineering of the CanX-4/CanX-5 formation-flying mission and management of the CanX-7 drag-sail deorbit demonstrator.

03Selected missions & programs

• CanX-4 / CanX-5

  SFL · launched 2014

  Dual nanosatellites that demonstrated autonomous, sub-metre-accuracy formation flying. Project manager and lead engineer.

• CanX-7

  SFL · drag-sail demonstrator

  Nanosatellite deorbit-technology mission for post-mission disposal. Mission manager and lead author of the mission's SmallSat paper.

• Comet propulsion

  Deep Space Industries

  Water-based smallsat propulsion system flown on commercial Earth-observation and RF-sensing constellations.

• HawkEye 360 Pathfinder

  launched 2018

  First cluster of the HawkEye 360 RF-geolocation constellation. Mission prime while CTO of Deep Space Industries.

• Photon

  Rocket Lab

  Configurable small-satellite platform built on Electron's kick stage. Led platform development as Chief Engineer, Space Systems.

• CAPSTONE

  NASA / Rocket Lab · launched 2022

  Lunar CubeSat that verified the Gateway's near-rectilinear halo orbit. Technical lead for the winning mission proposal.

• Sherpa-LTE

  Spaceflight · launched 2021

  The first all-electric orbital transfer vehicle, launched on SpaceX Transporter-2. Product created under his business-development leadership.

• gLab-1

  gravityLab · in development

  First demonstration of programmable artificial gravity on orbit: a spin-stabilized spacecraft with a motorized extendable boom.

04Writing & talks

• AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites · 2015

  “CanX-4 and CanX-5 Precision Formation Flight: Mission Accomplished!” (with Roth, Armitage, Newman, Risi, Zee)

• AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites · 2013

  “The CanX-7 Drag Sail Demonstration Mission: Enabling Environmental Stewardship for Nano- and Microsatellites” (with Hiemstra, Sears, Zee)

• Mars Society Convention · 2024

  Plenary on artificial-gravity satellites, University of Washington.

• Podcasts

  Guest on Main Engine Cut Off, The Space Revolution, and Off-Nominal, among others.

05Contact

The best way to reach Grant is on LinkedIn.
For gravityLab inquiries, visit gravitylabspace.com.