Astra CEO Chris Kemp: Bringing talent into your orbit

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Over 50 years after humans first landed on the moon, it’s still extremely difficult—and expensive—to get anything into orbit. But imagine if there were a more affordable way to give scientists and entrepreneurs access to space. We could develop more efficient agriculture to</span> <a href= "https://www.planet.com/markets/monitoring-for-precision-agriculture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">feed people more affordably and sustainably</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, or more closely</span> <a href= "https://astra.com/news/nasa-tropics-astras-first-earth-science-mission/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">monitor the evolution of dangerous storm patterns</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">to save lives.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The company Astra is on a mission to do just that, by creating a lower-cost platform that offers smaller, more frequent launches to get satellites into space. We sat down with Astra co-founder and CEO Chris Kemp to learn more about how his teams collaborate on the immense technical challenges involved, and how design is playing an increasingly important role as traditional control room roles become automated.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chris has an impressive background, from founding 3 companies to being the CTO of NASA, and we dive into the arc of his career, the lessons he has learned in leading people, and how he communicates mission and vision to his teams.</span></p> <p><strong>Bio</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Chris is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Astra. Previously, Chris founded several tech start-ups and served as the Chief Technology Officer of NASA, where he introduced new technologies into America’s space program and founded OpenStack, the largest and fastest-growing open-source project in history. While at NASA, Chris worked at the White House to develop the cloud strategy for the United States.</span></