Panelists

A veteran of NASA’s human spaceflight programs for more than two decades, Dr. Michael Baine serves as Chief Engineer and Chief Designer at Axiom Space. He leads the technical design and design philosophy for the Axiom Station, envisioned as humanity’s next-generation home in space.

Before joining Axiom, Dr. Baine was Chief Engineer at Intuitive Machines, where he helped guide the development of planetary landers—an effort that evolved from NASA’s Project Morpheus, on which he also served as Chief Engineer. His NASA career included technical roles in power systems, propulsion, and test and verification for major programs such as the Space Shuttle, International Space Station, Orion, and various advanced development projects. He also contributed to the scenario team of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

Dr. Baine holds dual bachelor’s degrees in electrical and computer engineering (B.S. ’93) and physics (B.S. ’93), as well as an M.S. (’98), C. Phil. (’98), and Ph.D. (’00) in physics from the University of California, San Diego. His doctoral research in laser synchrotron radiation was supervised by Dr. Sally K. Ride. Following his Ph.D., he was awarded a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, during which he conducted research on high-power electric propulsion with Dr. Franklin Chang-Díaz.