Matt Ondler

Matthew Ondler (born April 15, 1963) is the president and co-founder of Houston Mechatronics. Previously, he was the lead manager of the software, robotics, and simulation division of Johnson Space Center. Ondler earned his BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO. He then moved to Houston, TX, where he achieved his MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Houston and began a 28 year career at NASA Johnson Space Center.

Early Work

Prior to his 28 year career at NASA, he performed business & proposal development, strategic planning, program management, lead corporate innovation initiatives, and served as the company deputy chief engineer for Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, a $600 million-a-year engineering services company.

NASA

Beginning at NASA, Ondler was Mission Manager for SPIFEX, a primary Space Shuttle primary experiment that flew aboard STS-64 from 1992 to 1994. Then he became International Integration Manager for Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) for the ISS Program. He created and managed GN&C Hardware/Software Integration Test Facility in 1996 that is still used to this day. From 1997 to 2001 he was Deputy Branch Chief of the GN&C branch. In 1999 he led the Space Shuttle Program office and the Abort Improvement Team that was chartered with closing all ascent of loss of vehicle/loss of crew abort scenarios. This effort led to all abort "black zones" being eliminated.

Ondler then managed NASA's Project Morpheus, , a VTVL rocket landing test platform, alongside backing by Johnson Space Center chief engineer Stephen Altemus. The program using relatively little funding according to Altemus, successfully flew the lander prototype multiple times, demonstrating a low-cost lander was viable. Ondler, in a statement to Space.com, stated that the program in part demonstrated NASA's ability to work efficiently with little resources to build a substantial program.

Matthew Ondler became head of the Johnson Space Center Software, Robotics, and Simulation Division, where he took lead of a project to send a humanoid robot to the moon, based on the operational Robonaut 2. According to SpaceNews, Ondler pitched the mission concept but official support is limited.

Executive Work

As a business executive, he performed business development, proposal development, strategic planning, program management, lead corporate innovation initiatives, and served as the company deputy chief engineer for Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, a $600 million-a-year engineering services company.

In April 2015, he founded the company Houston Mechatronics, a firm specialized in mechatronics and robotics, where he serves as the president of the corporation and oversees all projects.