Astra Elevates Senior Leaders to Management Team

December 02, 2022 at 09:10 AM EST

Senior leaders from SpaceX, Blue Origin and Google to report directly to CEO

Astra Space, Inc. ("Astra") (Nasdaq: ASTR), a provider of space products and launch services to the global space industry, announced the evolution of its management team to include program execution.

"Key to delivering the full power of Astra to our customers is having a senior leadership team with deep experience, knowledge and connectivity across the entire company — what we call horizontal leadership", said Chris Kemp, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Astra. "To improve our execution across our two programs, Astra Spacecraft Engine™ and Launch Services, I'm excited to have Gio, Jonathan, Doug, and Bryson join the management team."

The updated management team will include:

Giovanni Greco will lead Launch System Delivery. Gio has been leading product engineering at Astra. In this expanded role, Gio will now be accountable for successful delivery of a launch system. He was previously chief engineer and senior technical director of the New Shepard program at Blue Origin. Gio received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and his Master’s of Engineering in Composite Materials from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Jonathan Donaldson will lead Astra Spacecraft Engine™ Delivery. Jonathan has been leading program management at Astra. In this new role, Jonathan will now be accountable for successful delivery of Astra Spacecraft Engines™. He previously was a Senior Engineering Director in the Office of the CTO at Google, and prior to that was Vice President and GM of Software Defined Infrastructure at Intel.

Doug Kunzman will lead Launch and Test Operations. Doug will continue to lead Launch and Test Operations. Doug brings with him nearly 40 years of experience in the US Navy, as well as two years at Blue Origin as Senior Director of New Shepard Operations and Maintenance.

Bryson Gentile will lead Manufacturing. Bryson will continue to lead launch system and spacecraft engine manufacturing and production. He previously led the manufacturing engineering team at SpaceX for the Falcon 9 rocket where he accelerated rocket production, reliability, and reusability. Bryson holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Engineering and Industrial Management from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.

Benjamin Lyon resigned from his position as the chief engineer and executive vice president of operations and engineering of Astra to pursue another professional opportunity.

"We are grateful to Benjamin for his stewardship in taking Astra to orbit, and helping build a world-class engineering and operations organization," said Kemp. "I’d like to thank Benjamin on behalf of the Company for his service and contributions."

About Astra

Astra’s mission is to improve life on Earth from space® by creating a healthier and more connected planet. Today, Astra offers one of the lowest cost-per-launch dedicated orbital launch services of any operational launch provider in the world, and one of the industry’s first flight-proven electric propulsion systems for satellites, Astra Spacecraft Engine™. Astra delivered its first commercial launch to low Earth orbit in 2021, making it the fastest company in history to reach this milestone, just five years after it was founded in 2016. Astra (NASDAQ: ASTR) was the first space launch company to be publicly traded on Nasdaq. Visit astra.com to learn more about Astra.

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