Ryan Sebastian ’06 and Harry O’Hanley ’06 of SpaceX are designing and executing breakthrough aeronautics.
Ryan Sebastian and Harry O’Hanley, graduates in the Class of 2006 who were also Class IV roommates in Goodwin, are among the designers, engineers and fabrication specialists working on breakthrough aeronautics at the massive SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Ryan and Harry are immersed — for many intense hours every day — in the design and operations of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Reaching beyond what many of us may have considered the outer limits of human capability fills them with enviable energy and purpose. This conversation with Ryan and Harry sheds some light on the whys and hows of their lives with rockets today.
Were you the prototypical little guys shooting rockets off in empty fields while you were growing up?
Ryan: Definitely. I was always into rockets. My uncle introduced me to rockets and I built them in my parents’ garage and launched them in the park fields nearby. I couldn’t get enough; as I grew, so did my interest. I applied rocketry to as many school science projects as I could and kept flying bigger rockets in bigger fields. I found rockets fascinating then and still do today. In terms of engineering and design, rockets travel further and faster than anything else man-made.
Harry: Not at all. I really stumbled into this work. I was always interested in engineering but had no intention
of going into aerospace. In fact, the beginning was hard, because my background was not in aerospace.
When did working on rockets become mainstream academic work? At Milton?
Ryan: At Milton. Mr. Gagnon, in particular, was totally onboard with my investigation and exploration of rocketry. Whenever I spent time away from Milton, I was building rocket motors and developing solid propellants at home. When it came time for my senior project, with Amanda Brophy and Kathryn Evans, I designed, built and launched an 11-foot, 85-pound rocket to an altitude of 1.5 miles.
I attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) for college, where I majored in mechanical engineering with an aerospace concentration. WPI had few institutionally supported explorations in rocketry. Contrary to what I expected, I had more support and encouragement at Milton than at WPI. The projects I was involved with waned while I completed my undergraduate and graduate degrees.
Harry: I knew engineering was my thing, but rockets just weren’t part of the picture for me early on. My undergrad work at MIT concentrated on mechanical engineering. I returned to MIT and got my master’s in nuclear engineering.
How did you get started, professionally?
Ryan: I started my career at Raytheon Missile Defense Systems but at the advice of one of my WPI professors began looking for a job in rocket propulsion to align my career with my interests and get more involved in rocketry as I had been before WPI. I moved to California to work on solid rocket motors at Aerojet, where many space and defense propulsion systems are built. Aerojet primarily sells solid propellant systems in which the oxidizer and fuel are premixed — cast and cured into a physical solid contained within a chamber. Using a propellant that’s in place and ready to be ignited when you need it has a practical advantage in military situations. These motors are very similar to what I was making in my garage.
At Aerojet, I led several teams working on different projects. I enjoyed learning how to motivate people, translate expectations, keep stakeholders and engineers happy, and at the same time gain insight into solid propulsion system designs. Although the technical work was fascinating, the exposure to the business model
of the defense industry made me turn toward SpaceX.
Harry: I interned at SpaceX in 2011, left to go to graduate school, then returned to SpaceX in 2013. I’ve always worked for SpaceX.
What are your days like at SpaceX?
Ryan: I am the Falcon 9 Second Stage Build Engineer. [Falcon 9 is the two-stage rocket designed to launch satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit.] I connect the build processes to the design and make sure we are meeting the engineering intent in the physical rocket. The teams need to be in continual communication to make sure that the parts we’re building meet the design needs and that those build processes are always improving.
Harry: In terms of a position, I’m a Falcon 9 First Stage Responsible Engineer. My job is to design and develop the first-stage propulsion systems and provide launch support. I can be at the design phase of the design operations ladder or actually be driving the launch vehicle — that is, on the console, in mission control, monitoring the rocket, in Hawthorne or Cape Canaveral. There are plenty of interesting engineering problems, and working all the way along the ladder is great.
Can you talk about some of the challenges?
Ryan: Integrating myself into the liquid propellant rocket world: Familiarizing myself with the rocket as a system has been challenging but an excellent learning experience. Ever-growing responsibility and insight in all aspects of the rocket and SpaceX’s business tools are both a challenge and an opportunity at SpaceX.
Harry: Every person at SpaceX has an uncommon, probably unrivaled, amount of freedom and responsibility from day one. I enjoy that. When your work involves operating systems you need to make decisions in real time, like during the launch campaign.
How does the reality of your job compare with what “outsiders” might think your job involves?
Ryan: People might not realize the level of detailed work that is involved in every aspect of the vehicle. Every item goes through design and analysis before it is built, inspected and tested. The reality of the job is managing the minute details to make sure that the components and vehicle are ultimately successful.
Harry: The schedule at SpaceX is very impressive. We turn things around at a fast speed. You go from concept to seeing something “real” quickly. Typically, we complete things on the order of days, rather than months or years, as in some businesses.
What do you draw upon from your personal tool kit most often?
Ryan: My interest in searching for the root cause of an outcome, the driver behind a result. I learned to investigate and understand issues while building and flying amateur rockets; any outcome would be the result of the level of detailed thinking I did beforehand. Because of that experi-ence, I enjoy digging into the details of systems and problems.
Harry: Operations necessarily generate huge data sets. They’re complex. You need to form an understanding quickly, about what happened or what is about to happen. You need a fundamental understanding of the system to do this. I’ve always been good at forcing myself to dig deep and understand the system I’m working on so that I can intrinsically know what’s going on.
What do you love most about your work now?
Ryan: Besides being able to work on rockets? The environment: At SpaceX there are clear goals, a “get it done” attitude, and a persistent desire to do better from all aspects, all while not throwing cost out the window. There’s a confidence that we can and will accomplish things that haven’t been done before. It’s fast-paced, collaborative, and people are excited. I love coming into work and being surrounded by people so passionate every day.
Harry: It’s the freedom and responsibility tension that I like the most. It gives me the sense that I control my own destiny. I work on high-tech Falcon rockets and having direct responsibility on the vehicle does it for me. Some cool stuff is going on here that isn’t going on elsewhere. There’s lots of responsibility throughout SpaceX; it’s a unique company. We’re involved in the next frontier.
by Cathleen Everett