Meet the Industry

Chairman, Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems; and Executive Vice President, Sierra Nevada Corporation

Mr. Sirangelo is currently Executive Vice President of Sierra Nevada Corporation and is responsible for SNC’s Space Systems Group.  He was the Chairman/CEO of SpaceDev, Inc., prior to its merging with SNC.  Prior to SpaceDev, he was the CEO of an advanced technology commercialization company and a major global communications firm.

Corporate and personal awards include induction into the NASA/Space Foundation’s Hall of Fame, Defense Industry Fast Track 50, Deloitte’s Fast Track 500, E&Y’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Inc. Magazine’s top 200 companies. 

Mr. Sirangelo holds Doctorate, MBA and Bachelor of Science degrees, has been scientifically published, and has served as an officer in the US Military.  Mr. Sirangelo’s other board memberships include the Center for Space Entrepreneurship, the California Space Authority, the National Center for Missing Children and the Int’l Centre for Children.

CEO, Space Adventures

Mr. Eric Anderson is one of the leading entrepreneurs in the commercial human space flight and space tourism industry, an astropreneur (as coined by Wired magazine). As the President and CEO of Space Adventures, Mr. Anderson has led the world's premier space tourism company to several years of profitable success and has sold more than $80M in space tourist flights; including the first and only two tourists to fly to the International Space Station (ISS); Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth. Mr. Anderson co-founded Space Adventures in 1997 with several former astronauts and leading visionaries from the aerospace, adventure travel, and entertainment industries.

Mr. Anderson's vision is to open the space frontier to private citizens, and to develop and utilize space resources for the benefit of people on Earth. He has been and remains an outspoken advocate of commercial space transportation, private space exploration, and space tourism. Through the development of myriad space experiences on Earth, via Space Adventures' commercial suborbital spaceflight program, and through the continued flight of commercial passengers such as Tito, and Shuttleworth to the ISS, Space Adventures has created a paradigm that makes space flight available to people all over the world. Previously, Mr. Anderson was the principal and co-founder of Starport.com which was sold to SPACE.com in June 2000. Mr. Anderson also worked as a business development lead for Analytical Graphics, the leading aerospace software firm; and has held various consulting and research positions with NASA, where he authored several technical papers and articles, on topics ranging from space tourism to launch vehicle analysis to business and economic evaluations of various space-related ventures. He is also a guest speaker and lecturer on various topics in the aviation and aerospace industry.

Mr. Anderson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Virginia, with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, and was selected by USA Today as one of the nation's Top 40 graduating seniors of 1996.

Founder, Bigelow Aerospace

Robert Thomas Bigelow is a native of Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1999, he founded Bigelow Aerospace ("BA"). BA is a general contracting, investment, research and development company that concentrates on achieving economic breakthroughs in the costs associated with the design, development and construction of habitable space stations, space transportation and launch facilities to the extent that they will be affordable for private enterprise use.

Furthering aerospace technology, he has been personally granted eight patents and has 13 more that have been submitted and are awaiting approval. To date, he is prepared to invest $500 million into space station structures. Bigelow Aerospace's first flight of the 33%-scale prototype Genesis I took place on July 12 2006.

Mr. Bigelow graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. In addition, he has completed many years of post-graduate business courses.

Mr. Bigelow has a breadth of finance and banking experience. He was the second largest shareholder of a savings and loan, and for five years he served on its board of directors. For another five-year period, he served as a director of a commercial bank of which he was the largest shareholder. Mr. Bigelow has owned and operated his own mortgage company, where he originated loans and bought and sold trust deeds and mortgages.

President, Armadillo Aerospace

John D. Carmack II is a widely recognized figure in the video game industry. A prolific programmer, Carmack co-founded id Software, a computer game development company, in 1991. Carmack was the lead programmer of the highly successful id computer games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and subsequent sequels to Doom and Quake. His revolutionary programming techniques, combined with the unique game designs of John Romero, led to the mass-popularization of the first-person shooter genre (FPS) in the 1990s.

Though Carmack is best known for his innovations in 3D graphics, he is also a self-taught rocket developer and the founder, President, and lead engineer of Armadillo Aerospace. Armadillo Aerospace is pursuing suborbital space tourism applications in the short term, eventually leading to orbital space flights.

CEO, X PRIZE Foundation

Dr. Diamandis is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, which awarded the $10,000,000 Ansari X PRIZE. Diamandis is now focused on building the X PRIZE Foundation into a world-class prize institute whose mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE is now developing X PRIZEs in fields such as Genomics, Automotive, Education, Medicine, Energy, and Social arenas.

Diamandis is an international leader in the commercial space arena, having founded and run many of the leading entrepreneurial companies in this sector. Diamandis also serves as the CEO of Zero Gravity Corporation, a commercial space company developing private, FAA-certified parabolic flight utilize Boeing 727-200 aircraft. He is the Chairman & Co-Founder of the Rocket Racing League. Diamandis is a co-founder and Director of Space Adventures, the company which brokered the launches of four private citizens to the International Space Station.

In 1987, Diamandis co-Founded the International Space University (ISU), where he served as the University's first managing director. Today he serves as a Trustee of the $30M ISU that is based in Strasbourg, France. Prior to ISU, Diamandis served as Chairman of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) an organization he founded at MIT in 1980. SEDS is the world's largest student pro space organization.

Dr. Diamandis attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he received his undergraduate degree in molecular genetics and graduate degree in aerospace engineering. After MIT he attended Harvard Medical School where he received his M.D. In 2005 he was also awarded an honorary Doctorate from the International Space University.

He is the winner of the 2006 (inaugural) Heinlein Award, the 2006 Lindbergh Award, the 2006 Wired RAVE Award, the Konstantine Tsiolkovsky Award, twice the winner of the Aviation & Space Technology Laurel, and the 2003 World Technology Award for Space. In 8th grade, while living in New York, Dr. Diamandis won first place in the Estes rocket design contest. Diamandis' mission is to open the space frontier for humanity. His personal motto is: "The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself!"

President and CEO, Space Florida

Frank DiBello, Space Florida President and CEO, was selected in May 2009 to lead the organization, which serves as the single point of contact for aerospace-related economic development in Florida. In this position, Mr. DiBello develops and executes programs designed to retain, grow and expand aerospace business in Florida. He also focuses on the development of Florida aerospace workforce retention and vendor appreciation programs.

Mr. DiBello has more than 40 years of direct aerospace and defense industry-related experience. In addition to his current role at Space Florida, DiBello is the founding partner for Aerospace Capital Partners, an infrastructure investment fund in formation, investing in aerospace, technology and telecommunications initiatives. He is also the president and CEO of a strategic advisory and investment banking firm serving the aerospace and high-technology industry. He also served as president and chief executive officer of Florida’s Aerospace Finance Corporation, established by the Florida legislature to assist financing the needs of new and established companies applying aerospace technologies to space, aviation and defense markets.

Formerly, Mr. DiBello served as the founding officer and vice chairman of SpaceVest Management Group, Inc., the sponsoring organization of the SpaceVest family of funds, and as managing director of several SpaceVest Venture Capital Funds.

Over the course of his career, DiBello was appointed by NASA to serve on a number of critical space commissions and committees. As such, he assumed responsibility for overseeing a five-year national outreach program to support NASA’s mission of stimulating industrial interest in the Space Station and in space-related research, development and applications. DiBello has also participated in numerous strategic, financial, and market assessments for multinational space industry clients.

Mr. DiBello taught at the Defense Systems Management College and International Space University. He received his BS in Mathematics from Villanova University and did graduate study work at American University and George Washington University.

CEO, Excalibur Almaz

Art Dula was among the first westerners to gain access to Russian space facilities, where he had the wisdom to see the value in surplus Soviet spacecraft. With over 30 years experience as an attorney specializing in aerospace, export control and intellectual property law, Mr. Dula has served as a NASA consultant on Space Shuttle contracts, and as a legal advisor to the US Congress on "Space Stations and the Law: Selected Legal Issues." Mr. Dula has served as a Director and General Counsel for several aerospace companies, including eagle Aerospace, Inc., which contracted to NASA and other aerospace companies; Space Services, Inc, which launched the first private US space vehicle; and Spacehab, Inc., which builds the Spacehab modules for the US Space Shuttle. Mr. Dula served as a Director and President of Space Commerce Corporation, the first US-Russian aerospace joint venture. He assisted in obtaining seven patents for space tether systems as a General Counsel of Tethers Unlimited, Inc. Mr. Dula's publications include "Private Sector Activities in Space", published by Jurimetrics Journal in 1983. He holds a J.D. degree from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern New Mexico University.

President and CEO, United Launch Alliance

Michael Gass is the president and chief executive officer for United Launch Alliance.  In this role, Gass serves as the principal strategic leader of the organization and oversees all business management and operations.

Before joining ULA, Gass served as vice president and general manager of Space Transportation for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, responsible for the Atlas, Titan and Advanced Space Transportation product lines and all space launch activity. 

Prior to this assignment, Gass served as vice president, Atlas/Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) programs, for Lockheed Martin Space Systems and as vice president of the Atlas launch vehicle program.  He was responsible for the Atlas II, III, and V launch vehicle programs, and held additional senior operational and management positions.

Gass also served as vice president of Production and Materiel Operations with responsibility for all Lockheed Martin Astronautics launch vehicle and spacecraft programs.  Before this position, he led the Atlas launch vehicle final assembly and task fabrication areas through the transition phase of an accelerating production rate and relocating the operation from San Diego, Calif. to Denver, Colo.

Gass attended the Sloan Fellows Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a master’s degree in management.  He also graduated from Lehigh University with a bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering.

CEO, XCOR Aerospace

Jeff Greason has more than 15 years experience managing innovative technical project teams at XCOR Aerospace, Rotary Rocket and Intel Corporation. As president and a co-founder of XCOR, he leads the engineering team that has developed six different long-life, highly-reusable liquid-fueled rocket engines, the low-cost liquid propellant piston pump, and the manned reusable rocket aircraft – the EZ-Rocket.

Mr. Greason is the co-inventor of XCOR’s Nonburnite technology, which combines aerospace fabrication practices with materials common in the semiconductor industry. Mr. Greason fabricated the first exploratory materials coupons in 2002 and is still directly supervising the coupon development work taking place at XCOR. He is intimately familiar with every aspect of the materials development to date.

Greason hired and managed the propulsion team at Rotary Rocket, where he led technical development of the company’s rocket engines from 1997 through 1999. Prior to joining Rotary Rocket, Greason developed leading-edge techniques to prepare new generations of Intel computer chip designs for mass production, dramatically shortening the time from architecture to customer-ready product. Intel management presented Greason with a coveted Intel Achievement Award for his work on BiCMOS technology, which later became the basis for the Pentium processor.

Greason, a recognized expert in FAA/AST reusable launch vehicle (RLV) regulations, led XCOR Aerospace’s licensing efforts until they were completed in early 2003, and remains deeply involved. He testified before the joint House/Senate subcommittee hearings on “Commercial Human Spaceflight.” Greason has maintained a close working relationship with AST since the 1998 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on RLV licensing and has been active in the COMSTAC RLV working group for five years.

Greason was cited by Time magazine in 2001 as one of the “Inventors of the Year” for his team’s work on the EZ-Rocket. He holds 18 U.S. patents. He graduated with honors from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Chairman, New Mexico Spaceport Authority

Rick Homans, appointed by Governor Bill Richardson as Chairman of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, also serves as the Cabinet Secretary for the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue. Homans worked with Governor Richardson during the creation of
Spaceport America and played a key role in recruiting Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant at the Spaceport, serving as the first chairman of the Spaceport Authority from 2005-2007.

He previously served Governor Richardson as Secretary of the New Mexico Economic Development Department from 2003 through 2007. Homans was the deputy director and lead policy advisor for the Governor's 2002 gubernatorial campaign. During the Governor's first term, he worked closely with the Taxation and Revenue Department to develop new tax incentives to encourage businesses to relocate to New Mexico or to expand or start-up in the state.

Homans previously lived in Albuquerque where he was president of the Starlight Media Group, the publisher of numerous city magazines, visitor guides and the New Mexico Business Weekly. He was the chairman of the Albuquerque Convention Visitors Bureau, Vice-Chairman of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, and co-founder of the Albuquerque Children's Museum. Homans is a graduate of Leadership New Mexico. He lives in Santa Fe, is married to Jan, and they have two children, Parker and Henry.

Senior Manager, Jacksonville Aviation Authority / Cecil Field Spaceport

Todd Lindner serves as Senior Manager of Planning and Spaceport Development for the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, which owns and manages Cecil Field Spaceport.

In August of 2006, Mr. Lindner was assigned the task of establishing a spaceport at Cecil Field. In this role, he was responsible for the successful completion of the spaceport licensing process and oversight of the development and operation of the Cecil Field Spaceport. He has coordinated all activities related to the Cecil Field Spaceport and provided guidance on aviation and space related issues to the Authority’s Board of Directors and staff.

From 1989 to 1997 Mr. Lindner served as a corporate pilot operating business jets and turboprop aircraft before transitioning into Aviation Management. In June of 2005, Mr. Lindner was employed by the Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) as the Administrator of Planning before being promoted to Senior Manager of Planning and Spaceport Development.

Mr. Lindner graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1986 with a Bachelors Degree in Aerospace and 1998 with a Masters Degree in Aviation Management and Administration.  Mr. Lindner is a Certified Member of the American Association of Airport Executives.

President and CEO, Masten Space Systems

David Masten is the President and CEO of Masten Space Systems. He is a manufacturing, mechanical, and information technology engineer with extensive experience in managing complex IT projects for Cisco Systems, Andiamo Systems, and SBC/Ameritech (now AT&T). As past President of the Bay Area's Experimental Rocket Propulsion Society (ERPS), David oversaw the development of the KISS hydrogen peroxide flight vehicle, the Gizmocopter VTVL test platform, and numerous bipropellant and monopropellant engine development projects and tests.

President, SpaceX

Ms. Shotwell focuses on the operational activities of SpaceX, including sales, marketing, manufacturing, launch operations, legal, government relations and finance.

Ms. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as Vice President of Business Development to generate and manage SpaceX's customer base and the company's strategic and government relations. Previously, she served for ten years at The Aerospace Corporation and before that, directed business development at Microcosm, Inc. She began her engineering career at Chrysler Motors.

In 2004, she was elected to the California Space Authority Board of Directors and currently serves on its Executive Committee. She has served as chairperson of the AIAA Space Systems Technical Committee and as an officer of the AIAA Los Angeles Chapter.

Ms. Shotwell graduated with honors from Northwestern University with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's in Applied Mathematics.

Associate Vice President, Southwest Research Institute

Alan Stern is Associate Vice President of the Southwest Research Institute’s Space Science and Engineering Division in Boulder, Colo, and chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation's Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG).

Stern previously served as NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. As chief executive of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Stern directed a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system and the universe beyond.

Stern is a planetary scientist and an author who has published more than 175 technical papers and 40 popular articles.

Stern has a long association with NASA, serving as the principal investigator on a number of planetary and lunar missions, including the New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission. He was the principal investigator of the Southwest Ultraviolet Imaging System, which flew on two space shuttle missions, STS-85 in 1997 and STS-93 in 1999.

Stern holds a doctorate in astrophysics and planetary science from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and master's degrees in aerospace engineering and planetary atmospheres and bachelor's degrees in physics and astronomy from the University of Texas, Austin. He is an instrument-rated commercial pilot and flight instructor, with both powered and sailplane ratings.

President, Virgin Galactic

Will Whitehorn joined Virgin Group in 1987, as head of corporate public relations. Previously he was an account director at Lombard Communications where he had worked on numerous flotation.s and bids. Before entering the public relations industry he had worked for British Airways as a helicopter crewman in the North Sea, was a Graduate trainee with Thomas Cook Group and finally market intelligence officer for the TSB Bank (now Lloyds TSB). He was educated in Edinburgh (Scotland) and graduated from Aberdeen University in 1981 with an honours degree in history and economics.

Having joined Virgin Group at the time of the October Stock Market crash of 1987, Will was responsible for all public relations activity relating to the buyout of the Group from the stock market in 1988 (one of the few successful buyouts of the decade) and for presenting Virgin’s new joint venture strategy in the years 1988 to 1991. From 1993 to 1995, he worked with Sir Richard Branson, and other directors from around the Virgin Group on developing a strategy to expand the brand into a number of new areas, this resulted in the launch of Virgin Radio in 1994, Virgin Direct in 1995, Virgin Cinemas in 1995, Virgin Net in 1996, Virgin Rail in 1997 and Virgin in Mobile in 1999.

From 1997, he began developing Virgin branded venture capital model for global expansion. In 2000 he was appointed Brand Development and Corporate Affairs Director of Virgin world-wide and became one of the 5 directors responsible for managing Virgin's unique venture capital portfolio of global businesses through its Investment Advisory Committee.

In addition to his full time role at the Virgin Group, Will was appointed President of Virgin Galactic LLC in 2004 following the successful negotiation of the rights to develop technology in Space Ship One, licensed from the Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a Paul G. Allen company. The company is now developing Space Ship Two with The Spaceship Company and Scaled Composites in Mojave, California. Will is married with 2 children and lives in London and East Sussex. His hobbies are Archery, Shooting, sailing, chess and bridge.

Outside of the Virgin Group, Will is also a shareholder and non executive Chairman of Next Fifteen Communication plc, a worldwide technology public relations group, quoted on the London Stock Market.

General Manager, Mojave Air and Space Port

Stuart O. Witt was born in Bakersfield, California and raised in Onyx. He is a graduate of KV High School, 1970 & 1974 Graduate of California State University Northridge; 1997 Graduate of the Naval Aviation Schools Command; 1980 Graduate of the Naval Fighter Weapons School; (TOPGUN) and 1996 Graduate of the University of Maryland's Center for Creative Leadership. His military career took him to sea as a carrier based F-14 Tomcat pilot with VF-14 and as an FA-18A project pilot at the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake California. Post Navy, 1985, Stuart joined Westinghouse Electric Corporation, currently Northrop Grumman, for nearly nine years as an Engineering Test Pilot on the B-1B, F-16C and F-23. Stuart joined CTA as a Program Manager in 1993 where he managed a $100M Range Development contract. After successfully completing this project and winning the follow-on competition, Stuart was promoted to Vice President/Western Region Director, then to Executive Vice President, Director of CTA's nationwide State and Commercial practice.

Stuart has been directing the expansion efforts of the East Kern Airport District's Mojave Spaceport/Civilian Flight Test Center. Mojave Spaceport was designated the nation's first inland spaceport and played host to the world as Scaled Composites qualified and won the $10M Ansari X Prize at Mojave Spaceport and furthermore gave birth to the first man rated commercial space program in the world. These efforts have generated commendations by California's Governor Schwarzenegger, along with the State Assembly and State Senate, Kern County's Board of Supervisors and Congressman Bill Thomas.

Stuart is Trustee, representing area 2, on the Kern Community College Board of Trustee's, Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, and Honorary Life Member of the California Space Authority along with Dr. Buzz Aldrin, Burt Rutan and Mike Melvill.