He received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Drexel University, where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity in 1987.

Senior EVA Tool Development Engineer for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Servicing Project.

Responsibilities included the budget, schedule, design, analysis, fabrication, test, and integration for breadboard, WETF/NBS, engineering, and flight hardware, documentation, and review process.

Additional duties included systems engineering support for the HST WETF/NBS Servicing Mission Simulations as a utility diver and EMU suited subject.

The PGT is a self-contained, computer- controlled, battery-powered 3/8 inch drive power tool with a pistol-style handle.

A light emitting diode display on the tool tells the astronaut what torque he or she is applying, at what speed, and how many turns the motor has made.

In 2004 Richards returned to NASA GSFC as the Observatory Manager for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R Series).

The GOES-R series is the next-generation of advanced weather satellites being developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in partnership with NASA.