ANCHORAGE, AK-Monday, the Alaska Aerospace Corporation announced the selection of Colonel John Oberst, United States Air Force (Ret) as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. The Alaska Aerospace Corporation Board unanimously selected Colonel Oberst after an exhaustive nation-wide search. Colonel Oberst is a long time Alaskan resident, with a broad background in the military and space industry, who brings a wealth of leadership, operations, engineering, and business experience. He will start leading the Alaska Aerospace Corporation immediately, building upon decades of successful operations at Kodiak’s Pacific Spaceport Complex.
“We are pleased to have Colonel Oberst accept our offer to be the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alaska Aerospace Corporation,” said Lindsay Knight, Chair of the Alaska Aerospace Board of Directors. “Colonel Oberst is career military air and space leader as well as a tech company cofounder. He understands the space industry, Alaska’s relevance in it, and the path required to take the Alaska Aerospace Corporation into the future. Colonel Oberst, along with the expertise found in the Board of Directors, will enable the Alaska Aerospace Corporation to reach its full potential, as a space industry leader, providing a highly responsive and competitive commercial and national defense launch capability. Colonel Oberst is the right leader, at the right time, and will serve the State well as he leads the Alaska Aerospace Corporation from the last frontier to the final frontier.”
“Thank you to Governor Dunleavy, and the board of directors, for offering me this amazing opportunity to lead this great Alaskan gem, the Alaska Aerospace Corporation,” said John Oberst, newly selected President and CEO, Alaska Aerospace Corporation. “I am honored and eager to begin working with the Alaska Aerospace team, our stakeholders and launch partners. I am stepping into a highly efficient, experienced, and successful organization. I plan on building upon the great accomplishments and grit of the professionals who made today possible. Because of them, the Alaska Aerospace Corporation is well positioned to succeed in a highly competitive and evolving global launch industry.”
Colonel John Oberst retired, after 30 years of service, as the Director of Staff of the Alaska Air National Guard, Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Prior to this, he was the Vice Wing Commander of the 168th Wing, Eielson AFB, Alaska, and Commander of the 213th Space Warning Squadron, Clear Space Force Station, Alaska. Colonel Oberst is a combat tested aviator with Command & Control, Air Defense, Air Refueling and Ballistic Missile Warning assignments. Before military service, Colonel Oberst worked in the space industry designing satellite components and developing the first civilian four stage launch vehicle, Taurus, with the Orbital Sciences Corporation. Colonel Oberst is a graduate from the University of Maryland and the US Air Force Air War College. Post military retirement, Colonel Oberst worked in the network technology industry and cofounded a tech startup company in Alaska.
Originally established in 1991 by the State of Alaska as the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation, the primary purpose of the corporation was to create a viable space industry in Alaska. Construction of the Alaska Orbital Launch Complex began in 1998 at Narrow Cape on the island of Kodiak to primarily support government requirements; the facility was one of the first spaceports licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Renamed the Kodiak Launch Complex (KLC), in reference to the spaceport location, the first launch occurred on November 5, 1998. This was the first launch from an FAA- licensed launch site not located within the boundaries of a federal facility. The first orbital launch from KLC was an Athena I, on September 30, 2001. In 2014 KLC was renamed the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA) to recognize the larger role of the spaceport as one of four full service operational spaceports in the United States. PSCA provides all-indoor, all-weather processing and offers optimal support for small lift rockets and satellites into sub-orbital and polar, sun-synchronous, and highly elliptical orbits over the North Pacific Ocean. The corporate headquarters are in Anchorage.
