Robb Michael Kulin (born December 7, 1983) is an American aerospace engineer, entrepreneur, and former

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

astronaut candidate. He was a member of

NASA Astronaut Group 22 NASA Astronaut Group 22 (nicknamed "The Turtles") is a group of twelve NASA astronauts selected in June 2017. They were joined by two Canadian Space Agency astronauts for training. History NASA announced the creation of this astronaut group in ...

but resigned before completing astronaut training.

Personal life

Robb Kulin was born and grew up in

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the List of cities in Alaska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of ...

Education

He studied

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

as an undergraduate at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...

, earned a master's degree in

materials science Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origins of materials sci ...

, and Ph.D. in

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

, both at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. For his doctorate studies, he focused on dynamic bone fracture. Prior to starting the doctoral program, Kulin was a Fulbright Fellow for one year at the

Politecnico di Milano The Polytechnic University of Milan (, abbreviated as PoliMi) is a university in Milan, Italy. It is the largest technical university in the country, with about 40,000 enrolled students. The university offers undergraduate, graduate, and higher ...

Career

He worked as a commercial fisherman in

Chignik, Alaska Chignik (Alutiiq: ) is a city in Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States. It is two hundred and fifty miles southwest of Kodiak. At the 2020 census the population was 97, up from 91 in 2010. History On April 17, 1911, a gale blew a ...

, and was previously an ice driller in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

on the

West Antarctic Ice Sheet The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is the segment of the Antarctic ice sheet, continental ice sheet that covers West Antarctica, the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains that lies in the Western Hemisphere. It is cla ...

and

Taylor Glacier The Taylor Glacier () is a glacier in Antarctica about long, flowing from the plateau of Victoria Land into the western end of Taylor Valley, north of the Kukri Hills. It flows to the south of the Asgard Range. The middle part of the glacier is ...

. At the time of his selection as astronaut candidate in June 2017, Kulin was senior manager for flight reliability at

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

, leading the Launch Chief Engineering group in

Hawthorne, California Hawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area commonly known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay. As of the 2020 United States cens ...

, where he had worked since 2011. In August 2018, Kulin became the first NASA astronaut candidate in fifty years to resign prior to completing the initial training program. He cited "personal reasons" for resigning from the program. Kulin joined

Firefly Aerospace Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an American private aerospace firm based in Cedar Park, Texas, that develops small- and medium-lift launch vehicles for commercial launches to orbit. The current company was formed when the assets of the former co ...

in April 2019 as Director of Engineering for its Alpha small satellite launch vehicle and later served as COO.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulin, Robb Michael 1983 births Living people American astronauts People from Anchorage, Alaska SpaceX people University of California, San Diego alumni University of Denver alumni