‘Star Wars’ Lawyer Transcends Sci-Fi to Join Real SpaceX Launch

A lawyer who helped move imaginary spacecraft across the universe is now part of the executive team at Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. that hopes to put a pair of real NASA astronauts in orbit.

SpaceX general counsel David Anderman spent 16 years in-house at LucasFilm Ltd. before arriving late last year as Musk’s closely held enterprise was deep into its push to become the first U.S. private company to send a crew into space.

The mission, a test flight known as Demo-2, will see a SpaceX capsule called the Crew Dragon carry Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to ...