DalBello Leaving OSTP for Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic announced today that Richard DalBello will join the company as Vice President of Business Development and Government Relations. DalBello is currently assistant director for aeronautics and space at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
This is DalBello’s second stint at OSTP, having served there during the Clinton Administration. He moved to the private sector thereafter and just prior to rejoining OSTP last year, he was Vice President for Government Affairs at Intelsat General.
Richard DalBello
In the Virgin Galactic press release, DalBello says that he is “excited to be joining one of the true leaders of the commercial space era.”
Virgin Galactic is currently recovering from the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) crash on October 31, 2014. The air-launched spacecraft was destroyed and one of the two pilots died. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is still investigating the accident.
SS2 is intended to take people on suborbital flights, but the company also is building a two-stage launch vehicle, LauncherOne, for placing small satellites in orbit. DalBello will be in charge of business development for LauncherOne and for managing Virgin Galactic’s interactions with the government.
DalBello’s career includes a mix of government and private sector positions. In addition to his four years at OSTP during the Clinton Administration, previous government jobs include working at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment, for NASA as director of commercial communications where he was responsible for private sector experiments on the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS), and for the Department of Commerce as Director of the Office of Space Commercialization. He also worked on the staff of the 1985-1986 National Commission on Space. In the private sector, he was Vice President of Government Affairs for Intelsat General, president of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, president of the Satellite Industry Association, general counsel of Spotcast Communications Inc., and Vice President for Government Affairs, North America for ICO Global Communications.
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