Space Investment firm IBX has appointed Steve Jurczyk as Executive Vice President of Space Operations. Jurczyk, who recently served as NASA’s Acting Administrator after a 33-year career at the US space agency, will add his technical and leadership expertise to the IBX team, expanding efforts to explore market opportunities in space, technology, and energy to positively impact the world.
Speaking about the new appointment, Kam Ghaffarian, Founder and CEO of IBX, said: “We are delighted Steve Jurczyk is joining the IBX team, bringing a wealth of knowledge and his highly valued perspective about the aerospace industry to our strategic growth efforts of building the next-generation commercial space economy. Steve’s focus on innovation and leading breakthrough teams at NASA and across the country helped open the door to this new era in space exploration. We are lucky to have him on our IBX team.”
In his new role, Jurczyk will advise space initiatives across all IBX affiliated companies, supporting efforts from space hardware to space nuclear. He will also help expand IBX’s work as an innovation incubator, supporting opportunities for market growth in the commercial space landscape.
IBX is led by Dr Ghaffarian, whose mission to advance the state of humanity and human knowledge has led him to create different companies and charities. Dr Ghaffarian has co-founded and is the Executive Chairman of several ventures, including Axiom Space, advancing the commercial utilisation of space and building and operating the first commercial space station; Intuitive Machines, the premier provider of space services and technologies, which will send the first American spacecraft to the surface of the Moon since the Apollo programme, and X-energy, a nuclear reactor and fuel design company building the commercial-scale advanced nuclear reactor and fuel facility.
Steve Jurczyk added: “I’m excited to join IBX and Dr Ghaffarian’s innovative team and continue my commitment to strengthening this new era in space exploration.”
During his three decades at NASA, Steve Jurczyk served in every major leadership role and obtained the highest honours available at the agency. He was appointed Acting Administrator (January – May 2021), leading the agency’s workforce through a time of transition. As Associate Administrator, he was NASA’s highest-ranking civil servant supervising all centre directors and ensuring the success of agency programmes. As Associate Administrator of the Space Technology Mission Directorate, he formulated and executed the agency’s space technology programmes, focusing on developing and demonstrating transformative technologies for human and robotic exploration of the solar system in partnership with industry and academia. He was also a Center Director, leading the team at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jurczyk began his NASA career in 1988 at Langley in the Electronic Systems Branch as a design, integration, and test engineer developing several space-based Earth remote sensing systems. He worked his way up through the centre’s ranks by contributing to a broad range of research, technology, and engineering disciplines in all NASA mission areas.
Jurczyk has received several awards during his NASA career, including two Outstanding Leadership Medals, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive in 2006, and the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Executive in 2016 — the highest honours attainable for federal government leadership.
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