Thomas Marotta

Tom Marotta is the Founder and CEO of The Spaceport Company. The Spaceport Company is developing commercial launch and reentry sites using mobile offshore platforms. You can learn more about The Spaceport Company at "thespaceportcompany.com" (all one word, no capitals). 

Prior to starting The Spaceport Company, Tom was at Astra Space.  There he led the team that obtained the first Part 450 FAA launch license and stood up a new launch operator at Cape Canaveral faster than it's ever been done before, in only eight months. 

He came to Astra from the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation, where he helped to author the Part 450 regulation, managed the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), performed launch forecasting, and evaluated numerous licensing applications. 

Before the FAA, he was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer serving tours in West Africa, Europe, and Iraq. 

In 2019, he co-founded the Beyond Earth Institute, a space settlement think tank. 

In 2018, he co-authored The High Frontier: An Easier Way which describes how developments in the space industry are increasing the likelihood of orbital space settlement happening sooner than previously thought. 

In 2015, he was the director of March Storm. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and three children. He dreams of opening the first pizzeria in space.