 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(March 2018) |
Stuart O. Witt | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 1, 1952 |
| Education | California State University Northridge |
| Occupation(s) | Founder & Owner, S.O. Witt & Associates, LLC |
| Spouse | Susan Witt |
| Children | 3 |
Stuart O. Witt (born November 1, 1952) is the Founder and Owner of S.O. Witt & Associates, LLC. Witt is the former CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port and a member of the National Space Council Users Advisory Group.
Stu Witt was born in Bakersfield, California, raised in Onyx, California and attended primary school in Isabella, California. He graduated from California State University Northridge in 1974 and is a 1996 graduate of the University of Maryland's Center for Creative Leadership. Witt was 19-years-old when he first learned to fly and earned his Private Pilot License.
Witt received his pilot wings as a naval aviator with the United States Navy in 1976. He flew the F-14 Tomcat as a carrier based pilot on the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67). In 1980, Witt graduated from the US Navy Fighter Weapons School TOPGUN. Later in his military career, Witt would serve as an F/A-18A project pilot at the Naval Air Warfare Center at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
Witt then transitioned to Westinghouse Electronic Systems as an engineering test pilot on the B-1B, F-16C and YF-23 development programs. From 1993 to 2002, Witt served as an Executive Vice President with CTA, Inc. [1]
In 2002, Witt became the CEO & General Manager of the Mojave Air and Space Port located in Mojave, California. [2] In 2004, the airport was the first location to be designated an inland space port. [3] [4] On October 4, 2004, Mojave was host to the Ansari X Prize where SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and financed by Paul Allen, won the $10 million prize and marked the birth of the commercial spaceflight industry. [5] Witt has been credited with recruiting nearly all of the sixty-nine companies that currently call Mojave home, [6] including Paul Allen's Stratolaunch and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
Witt has testified before Congress [7] about the benefits of commercial space flight. Witt was instrumental in promoting legislation in California that would limit the liability of commercial spacecraft operators. California Assembly Bill AB2243, the Space Flight Liability and Immunity Act, [8] was signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2012 after passing through the California House of Representatives with a unanimous 73-0 vote. [9] Also in 2012, Witt gave a TED Talk at TEDxKiruna. [10] It was during a 2014 interview with BBC and Witt where Mojave received its most famous tag line - the "Silicon Valley of Space." [11] Witt retired as the CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port in January 2016. [12]
In 2016, it was reported that Witt was being considered for several leadership roles at NASA including the Administrator and Deputy Administrator positions. [13] [14] On February 20, 2018, Witt was named to the National Space Council Users Advisory Group by Vice President Mike Pence. [15] Witt is Chairman Emeritus and a founding executive member of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. [16]
Witt is Chairman Emeritus of the Kern Community College District Board of Trustees. [17]
Witt is an avid outdoorsman and hunter. He holds an Airline Transport Pilot license and owns a Mooney M20 which is based at the Inyokern Airport. Witt is an Associate Fellow member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
He is married to the former Susan Etoch and they reside in Ridgecrest, California. They have three grown sons. In addition to his childhood and current residence, much of Witt's professional career, including assignments at China Lake, California and Mojave, California has been based in California's Kern County.
Mojave is an unincorporated community in Kern County, California, United States. Mojave is located 50 miles (80 km) east of Bakersfield, and 100 miles (161 km) north of Los Angeles, at an elevation of 2,762 feet (842 m). The town is located in the western region of the Mojave Desert, below and east of Oak Creek Pass and the Tehachapi Mountains. Mojave is on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Scaled Composites is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to develop experimental aircraft, the company now focuses on designing and developing concept craft and prototype fabrication processes for aircraft and other vehicles. It is known for unconventional designs, for its use of non-metal, composite materials, and for winning the Ansari X Prize with its experimental spacecraft SpaceShipOne.
SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to 3,000 ft/s, using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "feathering" atmospheric reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folds 70 degrees upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increases drag while retaining stability. SpaceShipOne completed the first crewed private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mother ship was named "White Knight". Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million.
Richard Alan Searfoss was an American aviator who was United States Air Force colonel, NASA astronaut and test pilot.
Flight 15P of SpaceShipOne (X0) was the first privately funded human spaceflight. It took place on June 21, 2004. It was the fourth powered test flight of the Tier One program, with the previous three test flights reaching much lower altitudes. The flight carried only its pilot, Mike Melvill, who thus became the first non-governmental astronaut.
The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave, California, United States, at an elevation of 2,801 feet (854 m). It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a spaceport by the Federal Aviation Administration on June 17, 2004. The facility covers 2,998 acres and has three runways.
Tier One was a Scaled Composites' 1990s–2004 program of suborbital human spaceflight using the reusable spacecraft SpaceShipOne and its launcher White Knight. The craft was designed by Burt Rutan, and the project was funded 20 million US Dollars by Paul Allen. In 2004 it made the first privately funded human spaceflight and won the 10 million US Dollars Ansari X Prize for the first non-governmental reusable crewed spacecraft.
Flight 16P of SpaceShipOne was a spaceflight in the Tier One program that took place on September 29, 2004. It was the first competitive flight in the Ansari X PRIZE competition to demonstrate a non-governmental reusable crewed spacecraft, and is hence also referred to as the X1 flight. A serious roll excursion occurred during boost, so the flight did not achieve the expected altitude. However, it exceeded 100 km altitude, making it a successful X PRIZE flight.
Flight 17P of SpaceShipOne was a spaceflight in the Tier One program that took place on October 4, 2004. It was the second competitive flight in the Ansari X Prize competition to demonstrate a non-governmental reusable crewed spacecraft, and is hence also referred to as the X2 flight. It was a successful flight, winning the X PRIZE.
Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two. Virgin Galactic‘s maiden spaceflight occurred in 2018 with its VSS Unity spaceship. Branson had originally hoped to see a maiden spaceflight by 2010, but the date was delayed for several years, primarily due to the October 2014 crash of VSS Enterprise.
Colorado Air and Space Port, formerly known as Front Range Airport, is a public airport located in unincorporated Adams County, Colorado, in the United States, adjacent to Aurora and six miles (9.7 km) southeast of Denver International Airport(ICAO: KDEN, FAA LID: DEN). Colorado Air and Space Port serves the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The postal designation of Watkins, a nearby unincorporated community, is used in the airport's mailing address.
The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.
Interorbital Systems (IOS) is an American rocket and satellite manufacturer located in Mojave, California. The company was founded in 1996 by Roderick and Randa Milliron and is currently completing the development of the worlds lowest-cost orbital launch vehicles, the NEPTUNE, the TRITON, and the TRITON HEAVY. Interorbital Systems was engaged in developing a launch vehicle for the Google Lunar X Prize Team Synergy Moon and for commercial launches. The company was also a competitor in the Ansari X Prize and America's Space Prize.
XCOR Aerospace was an American private spaceflight and rocket engine development company based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, Midland International Air and Spaceport in Midland, Texas and the Amsterdam area, the Netherlands. XCOR was formed in 1999 by former members of the Rotary Rocket rocket engine development team, and ceased operations in 2017.
Spaceport Sweden is a company that plans to make Kiruna the primary European Spaceport for personal suborbital spaceflight for space tourism, research, education, and a hub for cross-industry innovation.
George Thomas Whitesides is an American businessman. He was CSO and long time CEO of Virgin Galactic, a firm developing commercial space vehicles at the Mojave Air and Space Port. He still serves as a member of the Virgin Galactic Advisory Board. He studied in Newton North High School. Whitesides was previously Chief of Staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a position to which he was named after serving on the NASA transition team for the incoming Obama administration. On February 22, 2023, he announced his candidacy for California's 27th Congressional district in the 2024 election.
The XCOR Lynx was a proposed suborbital horizontal-takeoff, horizontal-landing (HTHL), rocket-powered spaceplane that was under development by the California-based company XCOR Aerospace to compete in the emerging suborbital spaceflight market. The Lynx was intended to carry one pilot, a ticketed passenger, and/or a payload above 100 kilometres (62 mi) altitude. The concept was under development since 2003, when a two-person suborbital spaceplane was announced under the name Xerus.
The National Space Council is a body within the Executive Office of the President of the United States created in 1989 during the George H. W. Bush administration, disbanded in 1993, and reestablished in June 2017 by the Donald Trump administration. It is a modified version of the earlier National Aeronautics and Space Council (1958–1973).
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is a private spaceflight industry group, incorporated as an industry association for the purposes of establishing ever higher levels of safety for the commercial human spaceflight industry, sharing best practices and expertise, and promoting the growth of the industry worldwide. Issues that the Commercial Spaceflight Federation work on include, but are not limited to, airspace issues, FAA regulations and permits, industry safety standards, public outreach, and public advocacy for the commercial space sector.