About the authors
Dr. Terry Alfriend is currently the TEES Distinguished Research Chair
Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, where he was
the Department Head for 1997–2001. He is also a Visiting Professor at the
Naval Postgraduate School. He is a member of the NAE, a Fellow of the
AAS and AIAA and a member of the International Academy of Astronau-
tics. He has served as an Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief of both the AAS
Journal of the Astronautical Sciences and the AIAA Journal of Guidance, Con-
trol and Dynamics. He is also the recipient of the AAS Dirk Brouwer Award
and the AIAA Mechanics and Control of Flight Award. He is a member of
the Air University Board of Visitors. In 2007 he was selected to give the Von
Karman lecture at the 2008 Israel Aerospace Sciences Conference. In 2005 he,
along with six others from the US and Russia, received the AAAS Interna-
tional Scientific Cooperation Award. His BS and PhD are from Virginia Tech
in Engineering Mechanics and he received his MS in Applied Mechanics from
Stanford University. His research interests are in space surveillance, astrody-
namics, satellite attitude dynamics and control and spacecraft design.
Dr. Srinivas R. Vadali has been a member of the faculty at Texas A&M Uni-
versity since 1986, where he is currently the Stewart & Stevenson-I Endowed
Professor of Aerospace Engineering. He served on the faculty of Iowa State
University from 1983 till 1985. He received his B.Sc. (Hons) in Mechanical
Engineering from Sambalpur University, India, his M.E. (Distinction) in Aero-
nautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, and his Ph.D. in Engi-
neering Mechanics from Virginia Tech. He is a Fellow of the AAS and an AIAA
Associate Fellow. He has served as an associate editor of the AIAA Journal of
Guidance, Control, and Dynamics.
Dr. Pini Gurfil is an Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Aerospace
Engineering from the Technion in 2000. From 2000 to 2003, he was with
Princeton University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
In September 2003, Dr. Gurfil joined the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering
at the Technion, where he founded the Distributed Space Systems Laboratory.
Dr. Gurfil has been conducting research in Astrodynamics, Distributed Space
Systems, Vision-Based Navigation and Optimization. He has published over
140 journal and conference articles in these areas. Dr. Gurfil is the Editor
of the Elsevier Astrodynamics Book Series, Editorial Board Member of four
aerospace engineering journals, including the AIAA Journal of Guidance,
Control and Dynamics, Member of the AIAA GN&C and AAS Spaceflight
Mechanics Technical Committees, Associate Fellow of AIAA, Member of
