Diane Murphy Joins
SpaceX As Vice President Of Marketing And Communications
(10 July 2008) Space Exploration
Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), a privately held launch services provider,
announced that Diane Murphy has joined the company as Vice President of
Marketing and Communications.
Ms. Murphy assumes the newly
created position with responsibility for all aspects of marketing and
communications, including strategic planning, media relations, advertising,
video and web content, exhibits and trade shows, community affairs, and event
management, as well as serving as company spokesperson.
"Diane brings a
wealth of experience within the aerospace industry and contacts across the
media world," said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. "She will help us
communicate effectively as we grow and work to revolutionise access to
space."
"In addition to the extraordinary demand for our products and
services, we are experiencing tremendous demand for updates on the upcoming
launch of our Falcon 1, delivery of the first Falcon 9 to Cape Canaveral and
development of our Dragon spacecraft," said Gwynne Shotwell, VP, Business
Development. "Diane will be instrumental in keeping everyone informed of our
progress."
Murphy comes to SpaceX from Northrop Grumman Corporation
where she led communications for their Space Technology Sector. Previously, she
served as Vice President of Communications for EADS North America, the US
holding company for the world's second largest aerospace and defence company,
and Executive Vice President of the X PRIZE Foundation, organising the first X
PRIZE CUP and working with the state of New Mexico to support the creation of
the New Mexico Spaceport.
For fifteen years Murphy served as Chairman
and CEO of Federal City Communications providing communications strategies to
aerospace, defence, and telecommunications clients. She began her career on
Capitol Hill as a press assistant to former House Republican Leader, John J.
Rhodes (R-AZ), before working for a Washington consulting firm where she
managed campaigns related to defence, energy systems, and directed political
advertising campaigns for more than 30 candidates including Senators Bill Cohen
(R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Governor John Sununu
(R-NH).
Murphy is a member of the National Press Club, serves on the
Board of Trustees of the X PRIZE Foundation, California Space Authority, and
Dashew International Center for Students and Scholars at UCLA. She was educated
at Friends Academy, Northwestern University and studied in the former Soviet
Union before receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown
University's School of Foreign Service.
About SpaceX
SpaceX is
developing a family of launch vehicles intended to increase the reliability and
reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by
a factor of ten. With its Falcon line of launch vehicles, powered by internally
developed Merlin engines, SpaceX offers light, medium and heavy lift
capabilities to deliver spacecraft into any altitude and inclination, from
low-Earth orbit to geosynchronous to planetary missions. SpaceX currently has
14 missions on its manifest including the two previous Falcon 1 demonstration
flights, plus indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts with
NASA and the US Air Force.
As a winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services competition (COTS), SpaceX is in a position to help
fill the gap when the Space Shuttle retires in 2010. Under the existing
contract, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and
Dragon spacecraft for NASA, culminating in Dragon berthing with the
International Space Station (ISS) and returning to Earth. NASA also has a
contract option on Falcon 9 / Dragon to provide crew services to the ISS after
Shuttle retirement. The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site at
Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008.
Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now
numbers more than 500, located mostly in Hawthorne, California, with four
additional locations: SpaceX's Texas Test Facility in McGregor near Waco;
offices in Washington DC; and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and
the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.
(source: SpaceX)
