A little over a month after Firefly Aerospace's former CEO abruptly departed, the Cedar Park-based company has named a new leader.
Jason Kim, who was CEO of Boeing-owned Millennium Space Systems from 2020 until this month, will take over starting Oct. 1, the company said in an Aug. 29 announcement.
Before leading Millennium, Kim was a business development executive at Raytheon's intelligence and space division. And before that, he was vice president of strategic planning with California-based Millennium from 2009 until about a year after it was acquired by Boeing. Earlier in his career, he was the space program manager for Northrop Grumman and an air and space program manager with the U.S. Air Force.
Kim wasn't available for comment. But Firefly noted that it previously worked closely with him on its VICTUS NOX demonstration launch for the U.S. Space Force in 2023. Firefly partnered with Millennium Space Systems on that mission, which challenged the company to launch a rocket and deploy small satellites made by Millennium with only 24 hours' notice.
"I have long admired Firefly's relentless drive and innovative spirit, particularly during our collaboration on the VICTUS NOX mission for the U.S. Space Force," Kim said in a statement. "I am honored to join this unstoppable team and look forward to building on Firefly's success and leading the company into a new era of category-defining achievements in the industry."
Kim, who was previously based in California, will relocate to the Cedar Park area where Firefly has its headquarters, a company spokesperson said.
"We are confident that under his leadership, Firefly will continue to achieve major milestones across our launch, lunar, and on-orbit programs," Firefly Chairman Kirk Konert stated.
Firefly, which has about 700 employees, is currently led by interim CEO and board member Peter Schumacher. He took over for former CEO BIll Weber, who abruptly left the company in July. The company declined to elaborate on why Weber left, but the departure came two days after aerospace news site Payloadspace.com reported that Firefly is investigating allegations from a former employee.
The leadership transition comes amidst a flurry of activity at Firefly.
The company, which is owned by AE Industrial Partners, had its fifth rocket launch on July 3. It also recently revealed its expanded rocket manufacturing and testing facilities north of Cedar Park in Briggs.
Earlier this week, the company also announced that its lunar lander, called Blue Ghost, was delivered to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for environmental testing. The testing will subject it to vibrations and electromagnetic interference that it could encounter on its mission, ahead of its shipment to Cape Canaveral for a launch later this year. The lander will be launched into space on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and it will orbit the moon for about two weeks before landing on the moon's near side to deploy 10 testing instruments.
“After all the hard work, it’s bittersweet to see Blue Ghost leave our Texas-based facility, but we’re more than ready for this final test," said Jana Spruce, Firefly's vice president of spacecraft, on Aug. 26. "We’ll have a dedicated team of Fireflies with the lander every step of the way as Blue Ghost travels from Texas to California to Florida ahead of this historic journey to the Moon.”
