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Yuri Kubo
"My education at Purdue helped cultivate an engineering process centered on learning how to learn and how to approach difficult and poorly scoped problems in a flexible and adaptable way. The skills my Master's advisor instilled during our research still serve me in my daily efforts. While my degree focusing on semiconductor design and fabrication has not been directly related to my technical challenges post-graduation, the skills that I learned have been the foundation for over a decade of success in the space industry and have given me the confidence to succeed in my next challenge fighting climate change."
Yuri Kubo | Electrical Engineering & Electrical and Computer Engineering
Vice President - Integration and Validation, Electric Hydrogen
Yuri Kubo began turning heads during his co-op days at Johnson Space Center. While reviewing schematics in a test
readiness review long after the design had been peer-reviewed by full-time engineers, finalized, and built, he
discovered a significant design flaw in the Orion spacecraft's pyrotechnic initiation system. Subsequent testing
confirmed his finding, and the prime contractor performed a redesign — averting possible loss of the mission, or worse,
the lives of the crew.
In his 12 years at SpaceX, his accomplishments included designing the launch pad safing system, integral to crew safety,
as well as the rollout pressure stabilization system. He was also solely responsible for all launch sequence automation
for the second launch of Falcon 9 out of Vandenberg Space Force Base. He became the most junior person appointed as a
launch director, followed by an invitation to join the new government satellite design program, Starshield, as one of
the few inaugural members. He quickly moved from being the manager of a small integration team, to senior manager of a
growing organization, to director of a large number of personnel, directly responsible for the design, build, and
contractual outcomes of new space satellite systems used by the DoD. In Kuob's final SpaceX appointment, he led the
ground segment team, making architecture improvements that can support hundreds of launches annually as well as multiple
simultaneous launches.
In spring 2024, Yuri moved into a vice president role with the climate technology startup Electric Hydrogen and was
quickly promoted to senior vice president of engineering, where he will support efforts to decarbonize some of the
largest carbon-producing industries in the world such as concrete, steel, and ammonia production through low-cost
electrolysis.