‘Chronic Inventor’ Neerav Shah Leverages Teamwork, Creativity to Keep NASA Flying

Originally posted on the NASA.gov website on April 5th, 2022. Removed from the NASA.gov website on February 6th, 2025 as part of the Trump administrations efforts to remove all traces of DEI.

Written by Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Name: Neerav Shah

Title: Project Manager, Project Formulations and Development Office

Formal Job Classification: Aerospace engineer

Organization: Code 401, Project Formulations and Development Office, Flight Projects Directorate

What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?

I work on formulating new flight projects. The most interesting thing about my job is that I get to work with engineers, scientists and other project managers to develop brand new innovative science missions for NASA Goddard.

What is your educational background?

I got a bachelor’s in aerospace engineering from Penn State. I got a master’s in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland.

How did you come to Goddard?

While at Penn State, I was a co-op for the Naval Research Lab and then became a co-op at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. After graduating from Penn State, I became a permanent employee at NASA Glenn. I spent two years at Glenn doing research and then came to Goddard in 2005.

What are some of the most exciting projects you have worked on for Goddard?

In 2006, my first flight mission was the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). I designed the solar array and high gain antenna control algorithms. LRO was exciting because it was the first mission I got to help design and operate. LRO flies around the Moon taking pictures and producing wonderful science. We had a great team too.

I also worked on the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS). I was in charge of designing the pointing algorithm to make sure that we were pointing everything in the right direction and that the spacecraft was spinning properly.

I also worked on Space Technology 5 (a mission that explored Earth’s magnetic field with three tiny satellites) and the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD).

Why did you return to research and development?

I wanted to return to research and development to do research on advanced formation flying for new missions. The Blue Angels fly in formation. We are trying to do something similar but using satellites in space. MMS and ST5 were  formation-flying missions, which was exciting. Our research focuses on advancing the capability of these types of missions so we can have greater precision between the satellites.

Around 2010, I determined that we needed a technology demonstration mission for advanced formation flying. We formulated a new mission called the Virtual Telescope Demonstration Mission (VTDM). It never flew, but we came up with a good design.

What did you do while in the Science and Engineering Collaborative Program (SECP)?

Around 2013, I was accepted into the SECP, a program in which scientists and engineers collaborate on new, joint research projects. The next two years we came up with multiple possible follow-on missions for the VTDM, which married the science with the engineering technologies. I felt a lot more creative because we were combining engineering with a science application. It was a great partnership that helped me understand the science needs. One of the follow-on missions was a partnership with South Korea called CubeSat Astronomy by NASA and Yonsei using Virtual Telescope Alignment eXperiment (CANYVAL-X), which launched in 2018. Another potential follow-on mission is called the Virtual Telescope for X-Ray Observations (VTXO). VTXO is a mission concept that is currently under development with New Mexico State University.

[Editor’s note: VTXO received exploratory funding from a 2018 grant alongside eight other small mission concepts. It has not yet been formally selected as a future NASA mission.]

What managerial positions have you held?

From 2015 to 2019, I was the associate branch head for the Navigation and Mission Design Branch. I was the technology lead, so I helped the engineers who were designing new technologies. That was really fun because I had the experience designing new technologies, so I had successes and failures to share to help them.

As a mentor, what advice do you give?

I really enjoy working with some of our new employees and our interns. I tell them to remain curious and to work really hard. I try to get people to focus on what they are passionate about and then apply that passion to their flight project. A group of my employees wrote a supervisor award nomination and I won, which was really great because it showed me that my approach to management was actually working.

What makes a good manager?

When I became a manager, I quickly realized it no longer was about me, it was all about the people, how they were engaged in their work, and how well their teams were working. I found that I could be a lot more productive with multiple teams that were helping the overall mission. One summer I had six interns along with my direct reports. My job was to make sure the teams were focused and worked well together.

When you have a strong team with motivated people, I find that you can get them to produce beyond what each person can produce individually. We all know that one plus one is two. On a high-producing team with passionate and motivated people, one plus one can equal three. I love that part of management and leadership, getting the people on the team to believe that they can each do more if we all work together. Once I realized that, I knew that I really wanted to continue leading project teams. 

On a side note, I think play is really important in building a strong team. A small group of us had an idea to have a “field day” at Goddard. During one summer, we hosted a field day for the interns and employees in our division. It was a huge hit, aside from the mid-90s heat!

What is your current focus?

I remained plugged in to the new missions and continue helping develop them. In 2019, I became a project manager for PFDO (Goddard’s Project Formulation & Development Office). I really like this position because I can leverage my flight experience, management and leadership experience, new mission and new technology experience and work with scientists and engineers together which I really love.

You have been described as a chronic inventor. What have you invented?

I have two patents thanks to wonderful teams. One was for a mission concept we developed while I was in the SECP program that has applications for solar science. I share a second patent for an advanced sensor for formation flying. It  was a labor of love and took 10 years to get the sensor into a design that could be patented.

What goes through your mind when you begin to think about inventing something?

It always starts with a crazy idea. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could do something like this? Wouldn’t it be neat if we could have this type of thing? You have to be curious. If you are not curious, you don’t even ask the question.

It is not good enough to have crazy ideas though. I need to talk to a lot of people and improve the idea and make sure that there is an actual application or use for it. We invent things that help further our missions.

At some point, you have to trim down all the ideas into one focused idea. It is all blue sky thinking although tempered by practicality. I love the blue sky, but to a certain extent you have to figure out how to make sure the blue sky happens. I have to bring some reality to the blue sky.

Inventing is always a messy process. You need to be brave. You need to put things out in the world, and people will shoot it down. You need the strength not to take it personally and to defend the new things you have suggested. It is hard. It is not easy to come up with new things, try to push the state of the art and then defend them. You have to be able to hear lots of “no.” You need to ask “why not?” You need the conviction to keep defending your position.

Passion is number one. You have to love what you are doing. Be patient and be persistent. And don’t stop after the first no!

Who or what inspires you?

As a kid, I always loved space exploration. I always watched Star Trek and Star Wars. I thought finding life in the universe would be inspiring. My dream was to work for NASA, to improve humanity. I’m living that dream every day.

At NASA, I have worked on some great projects. Many of our great leaders have inspired me, too many to name.

I also listen to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks about leadership, team building and innovation. I love to absorb new material because it makes me better in life which makes me better at work.

Is there something surprising about your hobbies outside of work that people do not generally know?

I enjoy spending time with my wife and two young children. I also love to play slow-pitch softball on the best Goddard team ever! Go Isotopes! During COVID, I started cycling and swimming, and I’m training for a triathlon.

What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.

Family. Passionate. Curious. Focused. Persistent. Calm.