Andrew Rader


Andrew Alan Rader is a Canadian author and aerospace engineer. Rader was the Season 2 winner of the Discovery series, Canada's Greatest Know-It-All. Originally from Ottawa, Canada, Rader now works for SpaceX as a Mission Manager in Los Angeles.

Education

Rader attended Carleton University from 1999 until 2005, receiving bachelor's and master's degrees in aerospace engineering there. He spent the following four years studying aeronautics and astronautics engineering at MIT, specializing in long-duration spaceflight, and receiving his Ph.D. in 2009.

Career

Rader worked as a research engineer at Canada's National Research Council from 2003 to 2005. After moving to the US, he worked as a research engineer at MIT from 2005 to 2010.
After graduating from MIT, Rader worked as a Spacecraft Systems Engineer at COM DEV from 2010 to 2014. In 2014, Rader moved to Los Angeles to take a job at SpaceX where he now holds the position of Mission Manager.
Rader was a candidate for the Canadian Astronaut Corps in 2009 and 2017. He wrote about the experience in an article for Motherboard called "What It's Like to Be in the Running to Be an Astronaut." He was also in consideration for a one-way mission to Mars as part of the Mars One project in 2014. Natalie Angier interviewed him about the process for a New York Times story entitled A One-Way Trip to Mars? Many Would Sign Up.

Books

Rader self-published his first five books via successful crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter. His first book to be released by a major publisher is the non-fiction chronicle of human exploration, Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take us to the Stars, released by Simon & Schuster on November 12, 2019.
His non-fiction books for adults include:
  • 2019 - Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take us to the Stars
  • 2014 - Leaving Earth: Why One-way to Mars Makes Sense
He is also the author of a series of science books for children: