[2] He grew up in the New York City metro area and attended Cornell University, graduating in 1995 with a degree in Applied Economics and Business Management.
He credited a class he took at Cornell with the late astronomer Carl Sagan in his senior year as steering him towards a career in engineering and space exploration.
[5] In 2004, Lai joined Blue Origin, an American aerospace manufacturer founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, as one of its first 20 employees.
[13][14] In advance of NS-20, Blue Origin published a video on his contributions to New Shepard and his thoughts on his upcoming spaceflight, describing him as “the architect of New Shepard.”[15] Lai is a member of the University of Washington Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics External Advisory Board.
[18] He received a Pathfinder Award from the Museum of Flight in 2023, given to individuals "with ties to the Pacific Northwest who have made significant contributions to the development of the aerospace industry.
Lai said the other founders include Rob Meyerson, who was Blue Origin’s president from 2003 to 2018; and Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who set foot on the Moon in 1972 and served in the U.S. Senate from 1977 to 1983.