For more than 60 years, VACCO has been serving the defense, space and commercial markets with extensive engineering experience and continuous collaboration. From the unforgiving conditions of the deep seas to the demanding elements of deep space, VACCO supports many of the world’s most critical programs and platforms for aircraft, filtration, navy and space with our guiding values.

Since the early 2000’s, VACCO has been at the forefront of the CubeSat technology development, investigating and addressing propulsion system needs specific to the micro-satellite market. Through investment in our employees, facilities and continuous improvement of processes, our highly skilled workforce is able to design and manufacture affordable, high quality products, while incorporating the latest proven technology.

Joe Cardin, Chief Engineer

Joe Cardin, Chief Engineer
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  • 21 years with VACCO Industries
  • 36 years of experience in the design, development and production of fluid controls for space flight applications.
  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, State University of NY, Buffalo
  • AAS, Mechanical Technology, State University of NY, Buffalo
  • 5 Patents for space vehicle fluid controls; 34 published technical papers

Joe is the inventor of VACCO’s propulsion system product line starting with the original 0.25U Micro-Propulsion System (MiPS) delivered in 2003.  He currently leads a talented group of space professionals in the design, development and production of Micro Propulsion Systems for CubeSats and more powerful Integrated Propulsion Systems for SmallSats.  Under Joe’s leadership, VACCO has delivered, or is under contract, for 44 propulsion systems include high-performance cold gas systems, warm gas systems and green monopropellant systems.

Chris Day, Electrical Engineering Manager

Chris Day, Electrical Engineering Manager
  • 17+ years in the CubeSat industry
  • BS, Electrical Engineering, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CA
  • MS, Electrical Engineering, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CA
  • Primary inventor for patent #9,114,891, a multifunctional electromagnet applicable to CubeSats
  • 7 CubeSat presentations/papers

Chris designed his first CubeSat in college over 17 years ago.  He worked on the first and second CubeSats (CP1 and CP2) at Cal Poly, where the CubeSat standard was co-invented.  He also lead the satellite design team for over a year to create Cal Poly’s second CubeSat.  After graduating from Cal Poly with a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering, he worked for Boeing for over 6 years in research and development focusing on CubeSat designs.  With Chris’s electrical design and testing, Boeing launched its first CubeSat, CSTB1, in April of 2007.  He also worked on several CubeSat and Nano-satellite designs before moving to VACCO Industries.  While at VACCO he developed the electrical control system for a variety of Cold Gas and Green Monopropellant CubeSat propulsion systems.  Chris was the lead Electrical Engineer for the propulsion system on the successful NASA/Tyvak Nano-ACE mission which tested several advanced 3U CubeSat subsystems. He also was the lead Electrical Engineer for the propulsion system on the successful JPL Mars CubeSat One (MarCO) mission.  MarCO is a pair of 6U CubeSats utilized as data relays during the Entry Decent and Landing of the Insight probe at Mars.

Cleve Samson, Sales Engineer

Cleve Samson, Sales Engineer
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  • BS, Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace specialization), University of California Irvine, CA
  • 7 years of Small Sat and CubeSat business development and applications engineering

Cleve is responsible for technical sales support, applications engineering and business development for highly integrated and customized subsystems for Small Sat and CubeSat applications. Before transitioning to sales and marketing, Cleve designed and tested structural aircraft components. Attending the University of California, Irvine, he earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in Aerospace.

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