Partner
Michael Nayak
Advisor, Industrious Ventures
- Firm
- Industrious Ventures
- Title
- Advisor
- Role
- Advisor
Record updated 18 September 2026
About
Dr. Michael “Orbit” Nayak serves as an Advisor to Industrious Ventures and is currently the Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of the Deep Tech + Exploration Domain at the XPRIZE Foundation. Prior to joining XPRIZE, Michael was a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he ideated, created and directed a $700M+portfolio of nearly two dozen programs at all Technology Readiness Levels. At DARPA, he founded the Department of Defense’s first- and second-ever lunar research programs, ran the Agency’s first Very Low Earth Orbit satellite program, and scaled a program to $6.6B in follow-on funding. Michael has worked for seven years across three NASA centers, including on the space shuttle; flight director for multiple experimental spacecraft; instructor flight test engineer and instructor pilot; led a scientific field expedition to the South Pole as a US Antarctic Program Principal Investigator, and has overseen all research activity
Background
- Education
- Michael holds an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering, Masters’ degrees in Earth Science, Aerospace Engineering and Flight Test Engineering, and a PhD in Earth and Planetary Science from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He was a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow for his doctoral work.Source (opens in a new tab)
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