Astrobotic has hired four NASA veterans to their team as they prepare their Griffin One for launch at the end of the year. This launch will be the company’s second attempted moon landing following the incompletion of their Peregrine Mission One lunar lander attempt in January.
“These hires add substantial experience and leadership that will help lead Astrobotic’s next lunar mission to a successful lunar landing,” Astrobotic CEO John Thornton said in a prepared statement. “Combining these proven leaders with our flight experience gives us more confidence than ever that Astrobotic’s lunar lander program has a bright future."
The hirings primarily include Steve Clarke as vice president of landers and spacecraft and Frank Peri as director of engineering. Clarke previously served as deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Peri previously served as director for the Safety and Mission Assurance Office at NASA’s Langley Research Center. Additionally, Jim Reuter and Michael Gazarik have joined the company as advisors.
“Steve, Jim, Mike and Frank are ideal leaders to be joining Astrobotic as we take the critical next steps in medium-class deliveries to the moon with Griffin One,” Thornton said in a prepared statement. “We’re pleased to have these four veterans aboard to guide our team in the next phase of Astrobotic’s growth.”
In January, the Peregrine lander suffered a propulsion issue and after 10 days on the edge of space was forced to make a controlled reentry into the South Pacific Ocean, self-destructing the approximately $100 million dollar lander. The Griffin One is not intended to be a replacement for the failed Peregrine lander and was planned prior to Peregrine’s launch.
Despite the failure to land, Thornton and other members of the company have indicated that the company was able to gather valuable data from the launch that will help to prepare them for the Griffin One launch in November. Speaking at a news conference in January, Thornton said that “after that anomaly, we just had victory after victory after victory, showing the spacecraft was working in space.”
“All of the hard-earned experience from the past 10 days in space along with the preceding years of designing, building and testing Peregrine will directly inform Griffin and our future missions,” a spokesperson for Astrobotic wrote in a press release in January.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, in a visit to nearby Gecko Robotics on Thursday, emphasized his belief that Astrobotic will experience a successful lunar landing, saying "Astrobotic will make it to the moon." Last year, his administration was responsible for allocating to the company over $4 million in state grants.
