Richard Holdaway,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FREng Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and Scholarship, fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK a ...

(born 1949) is a Professor of Spacecraft Engineering, Chairman of three hi-tech companies, and ex-Head of RAL Space, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Life and works

Educated at

The Skinners' School The Skinners' School (formally The Skinners' Company's Middle School for Boys and commonly known as Skinners'), is a British Grammar School with academy status for boys located in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Established in ...

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

, he earned his PhD in aeronautics and astrodynamics at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

, He is a visiting professor at the

, the

University of Kent , motto_lang = , mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...

, the

Beihang University Beihang University, previously known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (), abbreviated as BUAA or Beihang ( zh, c=北航, p=), is a national public research university located in Beijing, China, specializing in engineering, t ...

(formerly the University of Aeronautics & Astronautics in Beijing) and Embry-Riddle University in Prescott AZ. He worked on the design of the

Harrier jump jet The Harrier, informally referred to as the Harrier jump jet, is a family of jet-powered attack aircraft capable of vertical/short takeoff and landing operations (V/STOL). Named after a bird of prey, it was originally developed by British ma ...

(VTOL) aircraft at Hawker Siddeley before joining the Appleton Laboratory in 1974 and RAL in 1980. He has over 50 years of experience in space programmes, having worked on numerous missions in space science and earth observation with NASA, ESA, China, Russia and the UK National Programme. He was appointed director of Space Science and Technology at RAL (now RAL Space) in 1998. Under his directorship, RAL-Space merged fundamental space science with cutting-edge technological and engineering developments. He has had a role in several space technology spin-out companies. In 2012 he joined the board of directors of Canadian Company

UrtheCast UrtheCast was a Vancouver-based Canadian earth observation company. It produced two of the cameras currently in use on the International Space Station. One is a medium resolution camera, while the other is the first ultra-high-definition (UHD) vid ...

and in 2014 joined the Board of Stratospheric Platforms Ltd (SPL), in 2022 becoming its Chairman. He is also Chairman and CEO of Cambridge Space Associates and Chairman of Global Imaging Systems. In 2013 he was appointed a CBE in recognition of his services to UK space engineering, his work with the Royal Academy of Engineering, his long association with Southampton University and his numerous public outreach lectures. He lectures regularly at Universities and Colleges, to governments, and gives public talks including on the Cunard liners Queen Mary, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. His lectures include a series entitled "Journeys through Space & Time", covering: Space History, Astronomy , The Planets, Planet Earth from Space, Climate Change, Future Space Missions, and Things that have gone wrong in Space.

Selected works

* R. Holdaway, Is space global disaster warning and monitoring now nearing reality?, Space Policy, 17, (2), 127-132, doi: 10.1016/S0265-9646(01)00009-1, 2001 * R. Holdaway, The British Space Program, in Advances in the Astronautical Sciences (Edited by Hoots, F.R., Kaufman, B., Cefola, P.J., and Spencer, D.B., 97, (1/2), 1437-1442, 1998 * R. Holdaway, UK instruments for mission to planet Earth, Space Technology - industrial and commercial applications, 13, (6), 561-567, 1993 * J.-J. Miau, and R. Holdaway (eds), Reducing the Cost of Spacecraft Ground Systems and Operations, Vol. 3., Springer, 2000

References

Academics of the University of Southampton Alumni of the University of Southampton Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Living people People educated at The Skinners' School Science and Technology Facilities Council 1949 births {{England-engineer-stub