St. Petersburg’s Lonestar Data Holdings has added two figures from the space industry to its leadership team since September: an ex-president at a space startup and a retired astronaut whose life inspired a movie.
Stephen Eisele was appointed president and chief revenue officer of the company on Dec. 4, while Jose Hernandez, the former spacewalker, joined the company’s board of directors on Nov. 1. The appointments represent additional levels of support for the early-stage company as it seeks to pioneer storing data on the moon, according to a release.
Eisele will take over the company’s strategy for revenue, development and growth. He has been in the aerospace industry for over a decade, and he spent more than five years as vice president of business development at Virgin Orbit, a bankrupt spin-off of billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galatic. He will also look to foster strategic partnerships and expand the company’s market presence. His business experience and knowledge of the space industry will be “instrumental,” according to a release.
“His extensive experience and leadership in the space and satellite industry make him the ideal choice to lead our company into the next phase of growth and innovation,” Chris Stott, the company’s founder and CEO, said in a statement.
As a member of the board of directors, Hernandez will provide insight from his extensive background to help the company navigate the “ever-evolving technology landscape,” the release said. He has worked in various sectors of the aerospace industry.
A movie about his career, called “A Million Miles Away,” highlights his upbringing and maturing into an engineer working with NASA and flying to the International Space Station.
He is retired from his position with NASA and is CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering LLC, an engineering and consulting firm. Several other properties are connected to Hernandez, including Tierra Luna Cellars, a wine company in Lodi, California, and Tierra Luna Grill, a restaurant in Texas.
“We could not be doing any of this without [Hernandez],” Stott said in a prepared statement. “He and his team at Tierra Lunar have been, and continue to be, pivotal to the success of our work at Lonestar.”
Lonestar Data Holdings, founded in 2021, has received two pre-series investments totaling more than $6 million. It is a member company at the Innovation District’s Maritime and Defense Technology Hub in St. Pete. Its founder has a 20-year background in aerospace entrepreneurship and development.
In October, it announced plans to launch a test mission from Cape Canaveral to experiment with data transmission on the moon. The test has since been delayed and will be held in January, Stott told the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
