Phillip Hargrove spent the first eight years of his professional career at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, serving as a launch vehicle trajectory analyst and a mission integration engineer with NASA’s Launch Services Program, as well as leading K-12 and collegiate student engagement programs. He has extensive experience developing interface requirements for a wide variety of spacecraft, from small CubeSats to large space-based observatories as well as validating launch service provider compliance with those requirements. Early career highlights include the Mars Perseverance Rover launch on a ULA Atlas V in 2020 as well as the Europa Clipper launch to Jupiter on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy in 2024.

Hargrove has served as an adjunct faculty at the Florida Institute of Technology Spaceport Education Center since 2019 where he has taught online courses in Astrodynamics and Orbital Mechanics, and he frequently shares STEM engagement material with the general public and K-12 students through outreach programs like the NASA Solar System Ambassadors Program.