Jerry Petersen
Sierra Space has promoted Shawn Buckley, an expert in space habitation and expandable habitats who had previously served as senior director of engineering and chief technologist of the company’s EarthSpace Systems business, to the position of vice president of space destinations.
Sierra Space said Tuesday that in his new role, Buckley will be in charge of the company’s portfolio of in-space infrastructure and space station technology offerings and take the lead in establishing a product line for space habitation, which includes the Large Integrated Flexible Environment habitat.
LIFE is an expandable space station technology that can be transported into orbit in a compressed state aboard a conventional rocket then, once in orbit, be inflated into a three-story structure with enough capacity to house up to six astronauts. The inflatable habitat is currently under active development and recently underwent full-scale structural testing at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, during which it exceeded the agency’s safety and certification guidelines.
Regarding Buckley’s appointment, Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice said, “Shawn is our industry’s definitive voice on space station technology, making him the ideal candidate to lead our team’s in-space habitation work during this critical phase of development.”
For his part, Buckley said, “Sierra Space is an industry-leading company that can impact the complete space ecosystem from transportation to on-orbit destinations and the supporting applications and hardware components. I am looking forward to continuing to work with these amazing teams at Sierra Space to drive the future of space commercialization in the Orbital Age.”
