Steve Bailey
President and CEO, Deep Space Systems
Steve Bailey has worked exclusively on human and robotic exploration systems since 1983.
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in December 1982, Steve began working on the Space Shuttle program at the Johnson Space Center as a Guidance, Navigation and Control System Engineer at the Johnson Space Center. GN&C and real-time simulation and systems modeling led to system engineering positions in development projects and studies, where a keen interest in the joint JSC/JPL Mars Rover Sample Return mission study resulted in a position as a civil servant in the JSC New Initiatives Office. In the 1990 Space Exploration Initiative, Steve proposed, and eventually became the Project Manager, of the Artemis Common Lunar Lander Mission, intended to be the first SEI robotic precursor mission.
Steve joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1994 to support the Mars Pathfinder Project and subsequently the Mars Surveyor Program awarded to Lockheed Martin in Denver. Steve was embedded with their prime contractor as the Spacecraft System Design lead for the Mars Polar Lander. As a contractor in Denver, Steve provided support for flight missions Mars Odyssey, Mars Phoenix and OSIRIS-Rex while leading studies and proposal efforts including Discovery and New Frontiers competitions.
Steve became Lander Design Lead for BlastOff! in 2000 which was a dot com era start up for a commercial lunar lander.
In 2001 Steve founded Deep Space Systems, and has managed to maintain key technical roles in active projects including the Spacecraft System Design lead for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and a lead Systems Engineer on Orion from the proposal to the EFT-1 test flight. Steve also continues to lead advanced programs efforts including studies, proposals, and technology development, including working as the Spacecraft Systems Design Lead for Lockheed Martin’s Mars Base Camp, while leading DSS as President and CEO. Since 2001, DSS has grown from 1 employee to 50 and has branched from engineering services into providing spaceflight hardware for customers including Lockheed Martin, Sierra Nevada, Northrup Grumman and NASA.
In Nov 2018, NASA selected DSS as one of 9 companies eligible to compete for Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task orders. DSS is located in Littleton Colorado and remains focused on human and robotic exploration systems.