Robert E. "Rob" Meyerson is an American

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

and executive. Meyerson is the co-founder and CEO of Interlune, a natural resources company focused on harvesting resources from the Moon. Interlune came out of

stealth mode In business, stealth mode is a company's temporary state of secretiveness, either in total stealth mode when everything about the company is kept secret, or in-company stealth mode which is usually undertaken to avoid alerting competitors to a pen ...

in March 2024. He is the former president of Blue Origin.

Career

Delalune Space

Meyerson is the founder and CEO of Delalune Space, a management consulting firm providing advisory services to the aerospace, mobility, technology, and financial sectors. He is a board director or advisor to numerous organizations.

Axiom Space

In 2021, it was announced that Meyerson, former Blue Origin president, would be joining Axiom's board of directors and that Axiom Space had raised $130m in a new round of funding. Meyerson stated that Axiom Space is a force in the space sector, and it would enhance the vision for a secure global future.

Blue Origin

Meyerson joined

Blue Origin Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is an American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. In addition to producing engines for its own ...

in 2003 as program manager later becoming the first company president. Working with company founder

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ; born January 12, 1964) is an American businessman best known as the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and clou ...

, Meyerson grew the company from 10 to 1500 people. Under Meyerson's leadership, Blue Origin developed the ''

New Shepard New Shepard is a Reusable launch vehicle, fully reusable Sub-orbital spaceflight, sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the List of space travelers by nationali ...

'' system for suborbital human and research flights, and the ''

New Glenn New Glenn is a heavy-lift launch vehicle developed and operated by the American company Blue Origin. The rocket is designed to have a Reusable launch vehicle, partially reusable, two-stage design with a diameter of . The first stage is powered ...

'' system for orbital human and research flights, as well as the manufacturing and test capabilities that enable these programs. He also developed Blue Origin into a liquid rocket engine supplier, creating and selling the BE-3 LOX/LH2 rocket engine and the BE-4 LOX/LNG rocket engine to other companies. From January to November 2018, Meyerson was the senior vice-president in charge of the Advanced Development Programs business unit.

Kistler Aerospace and NASA

Before joining Blue Origin Meyerson was a senior manager at Kistler Aerospace Corporation responsible for the development of the

K-1 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the worl ...

reusable launch vehicle, the landing, and

thermal protection system Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entr ...

s of a two-stage reusable launch vehicle, as well as all technical activities related to Kistler's

Space Launch Initiative The Space Launch Initiative (SLI) was a NASA and U.S. Department of Defense joint research and technology project to determine the requirements to meet all the nation's hypersonics, space launch and space technology needs. It was also known as the ...

contract with

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

’s

Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center (officially the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center; MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville postal address), is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government's ...

. Meyerson launched his career as an aerospace engineer at

NASA Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in ...

(JSC) from 1985 to 1997 working on human spaceflight systems, including the aerodynamic design of the

Space Shuttle orbiter The Space Shuttle orbiter is the spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle, a partially reusable launch system, reusable orbital spaceflight, orbital spacecraft system that was part of the discontinued Space Shuttle program. Operated from 1981 ...

drag parachute, as well as the overall design, integration, and flight test of a gliding parachute for the X-38 Crew Rescue Vehicle, a crew return vehicle designed to return astronauts to earth from the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. Meyerson began with NASA in 1985 as a cooperative education student at JSC.

Personal, education, and awards

Originally from Southfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, Meyerson earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

and a master's degree in engineering management from the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

. Meyerson has been a long-time advocate for outreach programs that provide work experience and sponsors Blue's internship program, which has inspired and encouraged many university-level students to pursue careers in the aerospace industry. In December 2016, Meyerson gave the commencement speech at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. He is a trustee at the

Museum of Flight The Museum of Flight is a private Nonprofit organization, non-profit Aircraft, air and Spacecraft, space museum in the Seattle metropolitan area. It is located at the southern end of Boeing Field, King County International Airport (Boeing Fi ...

in Seattle, a former member of the board of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and is a member of the Leadership Advisory Board for the College of Engineering at the

and a member of the Visiting Committee for the Aeronautics & Astronautics Department at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. He is an AIAA Fellow, and a former member of the Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technical Committee. He was awarded the Space Flight Award by the

American Astronautical Society Formed in 1954, the American Astronautical Society (AAS) is an independent scientific and technical group in the United States dedicated to the advancement of space science and space exploration. AAS supports NASA The National Aeronau ...

in 2016. This award is given annually and is the highest award bestowed by the AAS. Meyerson was inspired by the Apollo program and also by launching model rockets as a child. For his 5th birthday, he received a cardboard mock-up of the Apollo Lunar Module and remembers playing inside of it. He later found the ingredients for rocket fuel in a cigar box that had been placed in the rafters of his childhood home by his two older brothers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyerson, Rob category:21st-century American businesspeople category:American aerospace businesspeople category:American aerospace engineers category:American chief executives of manufacturing companies category:American company founders category:American technology chief executives category:American venture capitalists category:Blue Origin people category:living people category:NASA people category:People from Southfield, Michigan category:People in the space industry category:Southfield High School alumni category:University of Houston alumni category:University of Michigan alumni category:University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni category:Year of birth missing (living people)