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David Thompson has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orbital Sciences Corporation since co-founding the space technology company in 1982. Orbital is one of America’s leading space-related R&D and manufacturing companies, with 2007 revenues of approximately $900 million and with a workforce of 3,000 people. The company is the industry leader in providing smaller, more affordable space-based systems to commercial and government customers around the globe. Since the early 1980’s, Orbital has carried out more than 560 rocket launches and satellite deployments, in support of commercial communications, Earth and space science, and national defense applications. Orbital is a New York Stock Exchange company with a current market capitalization of about $1.25 billion. |
| Mr. Thompson has been Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orbital Sciences Corporation since co-founding the space technology company in 1982. Orbital is one of America's leading space-related R&D and manufacturing companies, with 2007 revenues of approximately $900 million and with a workforce of 3,000 people. The company is the industry leader in providing smaller, more affordable space-based systems to commercial and government customers around the globe. Since the early 1980's, Orbital has carried out more than 560 rocket launches and satellite deployments, in support of commercial communications, Earth and space science, and national defense applications. Orbital is a New York Stock Exchange company with a current market capitalization of about $1.25 billion.
Before starting Orbital, Mr. Thompson was Special Assistant to the President of Hughes Aircraft Company's Missile Systems Group and was a project manager and engineer on advanced rocket engines at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. As a graduate student, he worked on the first Mars landing missions at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. As a college student, he worked at NASA's Langley Research Center and Johnson Space Center for four summers on Space Shuttle projects.
As a result of his work at Orbital, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President George H.W. Bush for his leadership of the company's Pegasus launch vehicle team. He also received the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum Trophy, was selected as Satellite Executive of the Year by Via Satellite Magazine, and was presented with the World Technology Award for Space by The Economist Magazine. In addition, he was honored as Virginia's Industrialist of the Year, was named High-Technology Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. Magazine, and was recognized with the Alumni Achievement Award by Harvard Business School. Mr. Thompson is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Astronautical Society, and the Royal Aeronautical Society, and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the International Academy of Astronautics.
He received a B.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a M.S. in Aeronautics from California Institute of Technology and a M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Mr. Thompson is married, has one child and is 52 years old. |
