Key hires (8/1/22)

Good morning. Last week was a bittersweet one for the Payload team. We said goodbye to Carlyn Kranking, Payload's part-time contributor extraordinaire, who has accepted an offer to be a full-time web editor at the Smithsonian Magazine. We're sad to see her go but very excited to see her inevitably thrive in the new position.

Due to Carlyn's departure, and the scope of contributions she made to Payload on a day-to-day basis, we'll be looking to bring on a replacement in the coming weeks. If that sounds like a dream gig, keep an eye out for more from us soon.

In today's newsletter:🚀 Firefly staffs up 🌐 Orbital debris🗣️ The week ahead

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Exclusive: Firefly Hires New Senior Leadership 

Ahead of its second orbital launch attempt, Firefly Aerospace tells Payload it’s made a slew of new executive leadership hires. 

Though the Cedar Park, TX launch unicorn has been through the ringer in recent months, its Alpha rocket is vertical at Vandenberg and liftoff is seemingly weeks away. Moreover, Firefly is sounding a confident note about its new leadership putting the company’s various programs on a competitive footing and taking them to market on a strong trajectory.

Quick recap

Let’s run through developments that Firefly has been through in recent months. When we say it’s been through the ringer, we really mean it. 

1. National security: In late 2021, CFIUS requested that Ukrainian-born entrepreneur and investor Max Polyakov divest his ownership interests in Firefly (in a seemingly raw deal for Polyakov, who cofounded Firefly). CFIUS is an influential interagency US panel that reviews deals for national security risks. 

2. Changing of the guard: Former Firefly COO Lauren Lyons departed last year, and in June, cofounder and then-CEO Tom Markusic stepped down and transitioned to chief technical advisor. Markusic was succeeded by Peter Schumacher, a partner at AE Industrial Partners (AEI). 

3. Extending runway: AEI led Firefly’s $75M Series B in March, valuing the startup at $1B+. We imagine the company is counting its blessings that the round closed before markets, liquidity, and valuations tanked. 

The CFIUS scrutiny jeopardized Firefly’s progress in a number of ways, by putting talks with NASA on hold, for example. But Firefly is ready to put that in the past and as a result of its restructuring, the company emphasizes it is US-owned/operated. With a bit of dry powder, cap table issues worked out, and production scaling up, Firefly has padded out its senior leadership team with a few new key hires, which brings us to the news of the day…

Firefly’s fresh faces

In the last month, Firefly hired five new executives onto its senior leadership team. 

1. David Wheeler is Firefly’s first general counsel. Wheeler has 20+ years of experience at corporate law firms and in-house legal departments, including Squire Patton Boggs and GE Aviation. 

2. Dawn Young is the new chief compliance officer. She has more than two decades of experience in corporate compliance, ethics, and risk management.

3. Penélope Figon-Merritt joined Firefly on July 11 as director of HR. She comes to aerospace by way of oil and gas and hails from Mexico.

4. Stephen McCall joined Firefly on July 18 as director for government relations and regulatory issues at Firefly Space Transport Services (STS). McCall is a USAF veteran, former Senate staffer, and most recently, the Congressional Research Service’s resident expert on military space.

5. Israel “Figg” Figueroa is coming on as director for system architect and solutions for Firefly’s wholly owned STS subsidiary. Figueroa has 22+ years of experience in the DoD and NRO.

As for head honcho…Schumacher is leading the firm in an interim capacity and the search for a permanent successor continues, Firefly tells Payload. 

🚨 New Implementation Plan Just Dropped 🚨

The White House has decided it’s time to do something about space junk. On Friday, the National Science and Technology Council released a 44-point national orbital debris implementation plan that aims to nip the littering problem in the bud before it threatens the safe operation of satellites in orbit.

Multiple US agencies are currently involved in some aspect of orbital debris management, with NASA, the FAA, the FCC, the DoD, and the DoC each pulling a different set of strings. The new implementation plan divides responsibilities between the agencies to improve debris prevention, tracking, and removal.

Leave no trace

The first pillar of the plan, debris mitigation, is aimed at minimizing the amount of junk that ever actually gets to orbit. Ending debris creation is, in the long term, the best way to keep the orbital environment trash-free and safely operable. The steps:

1. Research where in the launch process debris creation occurs, and offer incentives to address those pain points

2. Develop best practices for debris mitigation and educate the satellite operator community on them

3. Implement shared rules of the road for deconfliction maneuvers

4. Design add-on devices for satellites, including propulsion or other deorbiting mechanisms, to minimize collision risk.

5. Revisit deorbit guidelines, which currently maintain that operators in LEO must deorbit their satellites after 25 years.

Eyes on the sky

Pillar #2, tracking and characterization of debris, lays out steps for improving our observation capabilities for tracking spacecraft and debris in orbit. The steps:

1. Improve our knowledge of the space environment, including atmospheric density and environment models and space weather prediction

2. Identify improvements for collision avoidance and conjunction assessment technology, which includes funding R&D in a wide range of fields

3. Use the data from these studies to improve debris characterization models

4. Provide a communication platform for government and commercial satellite operators to share data and report maneuvers.

Picking up the pieces

Last but not least, the debris implementation plan addresses technologies being developed to remove existing debris from orbit. Active debris removal (ADR), on-orbit servicing, and debris recycling are all considered under this pillar. The steps:

1. Figure out how much of a risk existing debris poses to spacecraft and estimate the cost of developing remediation tech

2. Advance the technology readiness levels (TRL) of ADR and on-orbit servicing and refueling capabilities

3. Look into the legal implications of ADR and close approaches in space under the Outer Space Treaty.

Upshot: The implementation plan is full of calls for discussion, collaboration, and R&D, but we aren’t going to be seeing any major changes in regulation in the near term. Shortening the current 25-year deorbit deadline and creating an open data sharing platform for satellite operators would each be major steps toward more responsible orbital stewardship. An influx of funding to increase the TRL for debris mitigation and removal would provide a path toward federal acquisition of these nascent technologies. So far, none of that is set in stone.

+ While we’re here: Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of our deep dive into orbital debris and what’s being done about it.

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In Other News

• Masten filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after furloughing most of its staff in early July. The lunar lander developer won a CLPS contract in 2020. NASA has paid Masten $66M to date and says it will transfer its payloads to other landers. 

• A former employee filed a lawsuit against Masten alleging racial discrimination and retalation for exposing fraudulent billing practices, Parabolic Arc reports. 

• Space debris, likely jettisoned from a SpaceX Dragon, fell in rural Australia, and pieces were discovered by a sheep farmer on July 25. 

• A spent Long March 5B booster (CZ-5B) used to launch China’s Wentian space station module reentered over the Indian Ocean on Saturday at ~12:45pm ET.

• Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov added additional clarification to earlier ISS remarks, saying Russia intends to leave “not from 2024, but after 2024.”  

• SpaceX shared details on its ongoing work to mitigate the brightness of Starlink satellites. The megaconstellation’s light pollution has obstructed astronomy. 

The View from the Post Office

On Sept. 8, USPS will release a new stamp honoring JWST (more info here). For our legion of international readers, USPS = the US Postal Service.