Growing up during the Apollo years, Kevin Stattenfield was always very interested in space exploration and utilization. In addition, Kevin loved animals and brought several stray dogs home in spite of his mother's objections. At 18, being forced to make a decision between being a veterinarian and an aerospace engineer, he decided on engineering, attending Purdue University. Kevin graduated from Purdue (B.S. in Aero/Astro 1992), but not before obtaining his pilots license and gaining 2 years of work experience at The Aerospace Corporation in Los Angeles (where he learned valuable skills such as how to play beach volleyball).

Deciding he hadn't had enough school yet Kevin attended and graduated from Stanford University obtaining his M.S. in Aero/Astro in May 1993. Still deciding he hadn't had enough of school, and realizing he needed to broaden his academic background (needed some EE and ME expertise) in order to get a job, Kevin pursued an Advanced Engineers Degree (Aero /Astro 1995). During this degree, Kevin decided it would be "cool" to gain some "hands on" experience by helping to build the SAPPHIRE spacecraft through the Aero/Astro Spacecraft Design Program. Specifically, Kevin worked on designing the CPU subsystem, systems engineering methods, and designing an Earth horizon detector payload (which was the subject of his thesis) based on the Tunneling Infrared Sensor. Finally, Kevin decided he had enough of school and it was time to graduate and move on to the harsh cruel world of industry (where he hopes to be paid more than current graduate student salary and work less). Specifically, Kevin has accepted a Spacecraft Systems Engineering job at Lockheed Martin (Lockmart) in Sunnyvale, CA. After taking a long vacation (several months) exploring Western Europe, as well as, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, or whatever, he will start work in late August 1995.

In Kevin's free time (which there hasn't been enough of lately and that's why he is taking a long vacation before beginning to work) he enjoys sports such as soccer, racquetball, and volleyball and outdoor activities like SCUBA diving and hiking.