George Thomas Whitesides was CSO (Chief Space Officer) and long time CEO of

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The compan ...

, a firm developing commercial space vehicles at the

Mojave Air and Space Port The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave, California, United States, at an elevation of . It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a sp ...

. He still serves as a member of the Virgin Galactic Advisory Board. He studied in

Newton North High School Newton North High School, formerly Newton High School, is the larger and longer-established of two public high schools in Newton, Massachusetts, the other being Newton South High School. It is located in the village of Newtonville. The school f ...

. Whitesides was previously Chief of Staff of the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding ...

, a position to which he was named after serving on the NASA transition team for the incoming

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

Career

From 2004 to 2008, Whitesides served as the Executive Director of the National Space Society. He is the co-creator of

Yuri's Night Yuri's Night is an international celebration held every April 12 to commemorate milestones in space exploration. It is named for the first human to launch into space, Yuri Gagarin, who flew the Vostok 1 spaceship on April 12, 1961. In 2011, Yur ...

. He has served as Senior Advisor to

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

's space tourism company. Whitesides was the Chairman of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Working Group of COMSTAC, the advisory committee for the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Division. He was a board member of

Astronomers Without Borders Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) is a U.S.-based organization founded by Mike Simmons, dedicated to spreading astronomy throughout the world and connecting people through this universal interest. Projects include crowdfunding in developed countri ...

and the Space Generation Foundation. He has served as a coach for

Zero Gravity Corporation Zero Gravity Corporation (also known as Zero-G, stylized as ''zero G'') is an American company based in Exploration Park, Florida, formerly of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which operates weightless flights from United States airports. Unlike NASA ...

's parabolic flight service. Whitesides announced he will be leaving Virgin Galactic to pursue public service, but will still be in an advisory position to the publicly traded company.

Early life and education

George Whitesides attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, graduating from the

Woodrow Wilson School The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

of Public and International Affairs. He served for four years on Princeton's Board of Trustees upon graduation. He has an MPhil in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing from

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

. He was a

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Personal life

George is married to

Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides is an American public speaker, co-creator of Yuri's Night, and an author on space exploration. She accumulated over five hours of weightless time as a Flight Director for Zero-G Corporation, and plans to travel to space ...

. His father is

George M. Whitesides George McClelland Whitesides (born August 3, 1939) is an American chemist and professor of chemistry at Harvard University. He is best known for his work in the areas of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, organometallic chemistry, molecula ...

, a professor of chemistry at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

References

Virgin Galactic Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni NASA people Obama administration personnel Newton North High School alumni {{US-CEO-stub