Peter Marquez Joins Planetary Resources, Inc.

Peter Marquez, well known and highly regarded in Washington space policy circles, is joining asteroid mining company Planetary Resources, Inc.

Marquez was a national security space policy analyst in the Department of Defense when, in 2007, he moved to President George W. Bush’s National Security Council (NSC) as Director of Space Policy.  He remained at the NSC when Barack Obama became President and spearheaded the efffort to produce a new National Space Policy just 17 months after Obama took office – lightning fast in Washington terms.  He left the Obama White House in November 2010 and joined Orbital Sciences Corp. as Vice President of Strategy and Planning.  He also is a Fellow of the George C. Marshall Institute.  He is a frequent participant in panel discussions around town on a wide range of space policy issues.

Planetary Resources is an entrepreneurial company that wants to mine asteroids and recently started a crowdsourcing campaign to raise $1 million to help launch a very small space telescope.  The company said Marquez will “engage with key U.S. government entities on matters of strategic domestic and global interest” to help the company achieve its goals.