Spanning more than 39 years, Paul’s career has woven through NASA, the Department of Defense, private industry, and academia. He has served as an engineer and inventor, program manager, Naval Reserve Officer, board member and chair, and—most prominently—an astronaut who logged over 307 hours in space. In 2001, he flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on STS102, the eighth shuttle mission to the International Space Station and the first dedicated crew rotation flight. During that mission, he completed a 6½ hour spacewalk and had the rare experience of using one of his own inventions: the NASA Pistol Grip Tool, a staple of EVA operations since 1996.
Beyond his astronaut service, Paul contributed to major NASA programs including the Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Missions, the GOES-R weather satellite program, and the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration project. He also dedicated 17 years to Drexel University as a member and chair of the College of Engineering Advisory Board, and he served his country for two decades as a Naval Reserve Officer.
After retiring from NASA in 2019, Paul continued to shape the aerospace and national security landscape through a series of influential private‑sector roles. He worked in National Security Space at Leidos, served as Chief Technology Officer at Genesis Engineering, and later joined Amazon’s Project Kuiper as a Satellite Program Manager. He also spent five years on the Board of Directors for Agile Space Industries, where he played a key role in guiding the company from a struggling seed‑funded startup to a revenue‑generating enterprise.
At Revolution Space, Paul served as COO, Program Manager, and Chief Engineer, leading the company’s transformation from the brink of shutdown to a successful on‑orbit hardware demonstration and a valuation exceeding $1.0B. He now serves as Revolution Space’s Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Engineer, helping steer the company into its next phase of growth.
In addition to his corporate leadership roles, Paul continues to contribute to the aerospace community through his consulting firm, YCubed Aerospace Solutions.