Edberg and Costa constructed their textbook from graduate and undergraduate courses on space launch vehicle design, and have also used the material for a short course. Their topics include a technical history of space launch vehicles, propulsion, ascent trajectory analysis and optimization, space launch vehicle structures and layout, launch vehicle stress analysis, space launch vehicle stability and control: higher-order dynamic effects, launch vehicle systems and launch pad facilities, and launch vehicle financial analysis and project management. Annotation ©2020 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
AIAA Associate Fellow
Don Edberg has been teaching aerospace vehicle design since 2001 at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (CPP); he also holds part-time positions at USC and UCLA. CPP student design teams he has advised have placed over 20 times in AIAA student design competitions in Missile Systems, Space Transportation Systems, Spacecraft Design, and Aircraft Design. At CPP, he has received the Provost s Excellence in Teaching award, College of Engineering s Outstanding Teaching Award, and the Northrop Grumman Faculty Teaching award. He has presented short courses in launch vehicle and spacecraft design to several NASA centers, National Transportation Safety Board, Northrop Grumman, Boeing Satellite Systems, and several smaller aerospace businesses. He was a Technical Fellow at Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, where he authored or co-authored ten US patents, and received the Silver Eagle award from McDonnell Douglas. He has also worked at Convair, AeroVironment, JPL, NASA Ames & MSFC, and US Air Force Research Lab. He received a B.A. in Applied Mechanics from the UC San Diego, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautical and Astronautical Sciences from Stanford. He is an Eminent Engineer in Tau Beta Pi and was Engineer of the Year of the AIAA Orange County, CA section.
Willie Costa is an aerospace engineer and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt who has worked predominantly with small aircraft, high-power rockets, and missiles. He is an alumnus of California Polytechnic University, Pomona and Penn State. He has served as a NASA Student Ambassador, Penn State STEM Fellow, and Bunton-Waller Fellow, and has been awarded the NASA Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Award for his aircraft design work. He has worked at Boeing, NAVAIR, NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, NASA Langley Research Center, and at several startups and small enterprises. He is also a pilot, logging over 300 hours in seven aircraft. He has received two graduate degrees from Penn State a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering and a Master of Management and Organizational Leadership, with a concentration in finance and currently serves as President of Vuong Enterprises, a multinational management consulting and private equity firm.
