Ron Garan is a highly decorated US Air Force Fighter Pilot, Test Pilot & Instructor, Explorer, and Entrepreneur. As a former NASA astronaut, Ron traveled over 17 million miles in 2,842 orbits of Earth during 178 days in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and 27 hours of EVAs between four spacewalks. He flew on both the US Space Shuttle and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Ron has an extensive background as an aquanaut, holding at the time, the record length for an 18-day exploration research mission in Aquarius, the world’s only undersea research laboratory, when he participated in the joint NASA-NOAA NEEMO-9 mission.

Ron’s last assignment at NASA was in NASA's Open Innovation Initiative, which seeks to  increase openness, transparency, collaboration, and innovation within government. In this capacity, Ron was involved in many global mass collaboration and citizen science programs. Working in partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Ron led an effort called Unity Node to develop a universal, open source, collaborative platform to enable humanitarian organizations around the world to work together toward their common goals.

Outside his work with the US government, Ron has executive experience as a serial entrepreneur, having founded multiple business enterprises and social-impact focused startups, including Manna Energy Ltd., created to leverage the Carbon Market to finance humanitarian projects in developing countries.

Ron previously served as the Chief Pilot for World View Enterprises, a pioneering high altitude and space company bringing communications technology, sensors, and people to the edge of space.

Garan is an author of 3 books: The Orbital Perspective, Floating in Darkness, and his recent children’s book Railroad to the Moon. He currently resides in Boulder, Colorado.