Richard Lynch

Water is the most valuable resource on the Moon. It is drinking water, breathable oxygen and rocket propellant, and today every kilogram of it has to be launched from Earth. I founded Lynx Exploration to change that: we find, extract and deliver lunar water.

I have been working on the Moon since 1990. My first job, at Lockheed Missiles and Space, was project systems engineer for the Lunar Prospector launch vehicle, where I designed the Trans-Lunar Injection stage. Lunar Prospector went on to return the first evidence of water ice at the lunar poles.

Since then I have worked across launch, national systems and flagship science. At Orbital Sciences I was Mission Manager for Taurus-2/Geosat Follow-on and qualified the first whole-payload isolation system for flight. At The Aerospace Corporation I developed the Commercial Imaging Strategy for the United States. At NASA Goddard I was Deputy Mission Systems Engineer, then Spacecraft Manager and Deputy Observatory Manager, for the James Webb Space Telescope, leading the government team through the integration and testing that produced a fully qualified JWST spacecraft. I then managed the spacecraft for Restore-L, NASA's robotic satellite-servicing mission.

At HelioSpace I was Deputy Mission Systems Engineer for Mars Sample Return's Capture, Containment and Return System, Project Manager and Mission Systems Engineer for the Lunar Farside Technosignature and Transients Telescope (LFT3), and led systems engineering for five Planetary Decadal Survey mission studies.

In 2025 I founded Lynch Space, which provides systems engineering and integration and test services to New Space companies, including work on Axiom Station and Sierra Space's Dream Chaser. Lynch Space incubated Lynx.

I am a Fellow of The Explorers Club, serve on the LEAG Commercial Advisory Board, and mentor and judge for NASA's Lunabotics robotic mining competition.

We are hiring founding rover systems engineers in Great Falls, Virginia, and talking with investors who want a stake in the lunar economy. If either is you, message me or visit lynxexploration.com.