Astra Chief Engineer Resigns, CEO Shuffles Management 'to execute faster'
As Astra enters a new chapter, its former Chief Engineer Benjamin Lynn is departing the company for new opportunities elsewhere and a number of senior leaders are being elevated to management positions.
2 minute read•Updated 8:56 AM EDT, Thu March 28, 2024
Benjamin Lynn resigned from his position as the chief engineer and chief executive vice president of operations and engineering of Astra in pursuit of "another professional opportunity".
Astra has elevated several senior members of its team to management positions within the company:
Giovanni Greco
Gio previously lead product engineering at Astra and was chief engineer and senior technical director at Blue Origin as part of their New Shepard program. While at Blue Origin, he received his B.S in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's of Engineering in Composite Material from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In his expanded role, Gio will now be responsible for "successful delivery of a launch system".
Jonathan Donaldson
Jonathan has been leading program management at Astra. In his new role. Jonathan will now be responsible for successful delivery of Astras Spacecraft Engines. Previously, Jonathan 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
Doug has been and will continue to lead launch and test operations at Astra. He has over 40 years of experience in the US Navy as well as 2 years at Blue Origin as Senior Director of New Shepard Operations and Maintenance.
Bryson Gentile
Bryson has been and will continue to lead launch system and spacecraft engine manufacturing and production. He previously led the manufacturing engineering team at SpaceX for Falcon. Bryson holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Engineering and Industrial Management from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.
“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.”
This comes at a time where Astra's future is highly uncertain with the cancellation of their Rocket 3 vehicle and lack of launch capability until at least 2023 or 2024 when the company hopes their new "launch system 2|, or rocket 4, will come online to take over.
