Mr. Peter M. Kachmar

Peter M. Kachmar holds the position of Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Principal Systems Engineer, at the Charles Stark Draper laboratory in Cambridge Massachusetts.

Mr. Kachmar was a significant contributor to the design of the Command Module, Lunar Excursion Module and Shuttle rendezvous systems for the Apollo Lunar Landing Program, which included guidance and navigation system design, requirements, architecture, flight rules, and ground and on-board rendezvous operations.
He was a key contributor to the design, integration and verification of the Space Shuttle ascent, entry, and on-orbit integrated avionics systems. He applied these concepts to the development of an Automatic Rendezvous and Capture/Docking capability using a Shuttle-like vehicle for JSC. He had similar responsibilities for the rendezvous mission design, and integrated GN&C system design and operations, for Mars Sample Return Mission for NASA JPL.
He was responsible for the design of the Shuttle GPS navigation system upgrade and development of an experimental GPS navigation system for use in Strategic Missiles.
He is recognized by NASA as a leading authority in space rendezvous and proximity operations, integrated spacecraft ascent, entry and on-orbit systems, system autonomy and autonomous operations, GPS applications for space vehicles, and space vehicle integrated GN&C systems. He received the NASA Space Awareness Honoree Award for his extensive work for NASA
He was also the lead systems engineer responsible for the guidance system design for the U. S. Navy Trident Missile Life Extension Program.