Flight and Launch Vice President named by Virgin Orbit
Tyler Grinnell has been tapped to serve as Virgin Orbit's new vice president of Flight and Launch. As Virgin Orbit works to further evolve its commercial launch services, Grinnell will play a key role in enabling the Flight and Launch teams to achieve the operating pace and efficiencies required to serve the company’s growing customer manifest.
"The LauncherOne platform is one of innovation, and a major catalyst for rapid, reliable launch. Utilization of the unique 747-based launch capability has eliminated the cost and time associated with launch pad refurbishment, which is a major driver to launch cadence."
Tyler Grinnell, Virgin Orbit VP of Flight and Launch.
Grinnell brings with him a decade and a half of aerospace experience to the job, joining Virgin Orbit after spending 12 years at SpaceX, where he held a number of positions including Launch Engineer, Launch Lead Engineer for Instrumentation & Avionics, Lead Launch Operations Development Engineer, Senior Manager of Launch Operations Development, and most recently Director of Launch and Recovery Operations.
As Director of Launch and Recovery Operations, Tyler oversaw the large team of engineers, technicians, and support staff who provide the integrated launch, recovery, and pad operations for the Falcon 9 and Dragon vehicles, during which time his team executed 20 successful missions within a 12-month period, as well as the successful launch and recovery of the first commercial crew astronauts. Prior to SpaceX, he held roles at both Boeing and NASA at Kennedy Space Center.
"The LauncherOne platform is one of innovation, and a major catalyst for rapid, reliable launch. Utilization of the unique 747-based launch capability has eliminated the cost and time associated with launch pad refurbishment, which is a major driver to launch cadence," Grinnell said. "This also reduces or eliminates many external factors that all other launch pad-based providers need to account for — such as ground launch weather and scheduling conflicts with other launch providers.”
Tyler earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle University and serves on the Aerospace & College of Engineering Industry Advisory Boards for the university.
(Image provided with Virgin Orbit news release)