Richard Godwin
From The Space Library
 Richard Godwin c. 2003 | |
| Birth Name | Geoffrey Richard Steven Godwin |
|---|---|
| Birth Date | 1955 |
| Affiliations | Board member NSS and Board Member Space Frontier Foundation, President Apogee Books |
| Occupation | Space Entrepreneur and Consultant |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Notable Works | The Watch asteroid program, DragonLab SpaceX project |
Richard Godwin is a British space advocate and space consultant who has lived in the United States since 1987. Since a very early age Godwin had been interested and involved in Space Flight. His studies in the UK include Advanced Physics, Advanced Maths, Economics, Mechanical Engineering and Business. He has been a serial entrepreneur in both the United Kingdom and the United States, having built several small medium and large companies in both countries.
Whilst living in the US, Godwin joined the National Space Society and soon became a Board member. He also joined the Space Frontier Foundation as an advocate and became the first person to be on the Board of both organizations at the same time. While at the SFF he oversaw an asteroid search program known as The Watch. The Watch raised and disbursed funds for Asteroid identification and classification on a worldwide basis. It was one of the most successful projects executed on behalf of the SFF, raising a substantial amount of money and donating those funds to helping the Minor Planet Center purchase new computer equipment as well as providing funding for several observatories around the world. The Watch also provided funding for a US Senate roundtable which Godwin sat on. This particular event raised awareness of asteroid issues in the US Congress. As a result of this work the MPC named an asteroid in his honour. (Godwin4252)
Godwin is a partner, with his brother Robert, in a publishing company that has come to be known as THE Space Book Company, Apogee Books. The award winning company at this time still has over 200 space titles in print. Book titles include The NASA Mission Reports and the Space Pocket Guides.
In 2003 Godwin was called to join a distinguished group who were asked to make recommendations to NASA for a new direction in the US manned space program. Recommendations included a return to the moon which eventually became known as the Constellation Program. More recently Godwin has become well known as a space business consultant, having worked on SpaceX’s nascent DragonLab project, a derivation of their Dragon cargo vessel program.
He currently still works as a consultant in the space and energy fields.
