Presenter:

John Thornton
Chief Executive Officer, Astrobotic Technology, Inc.

Café Sci: Making the Moon accessible to the world

Learn how a Pittsburgh company is making high-capability space missions practical for a broad spectrum of business, scientific, and social applications at Café Sci. On Mon., July 1, join John Thornton, Chief Executive Officer of Astrobotic Technology, Inc., as he discusses how the company’s lunar lander, Peregrine, delivers payloads to the Moon for companies, governments, universities, nonprofits, and individuals for $1.2 million per kilogram.

Most recently, Astrobotic was selected by NASA for a $79.5 million contract to deliver payloads to the Moon in 2021. The company also has more than 30 prior and ongoing NASA and commercial technology contracts, a commercial partnership with Airbus DS, a corporate sponsorship with DHL, and 28 payloads signed on for Peregrine’s first mission to the Moon.

Originally spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2007 by William “Red” Whittaker, Astrobotic is pioneering affordable planetary access that promises to spark a new era of exploration, science, tourism, resource utilization, and mining. 

Thornton has grown Astrobotic’s business by attracting technology contracts, equity investment, and payload customers. At Carnegie Mellon University, he led the build of Scarab, aNASA concept robot for lunar drilling, and the first robot to carry a prototype of NASA's RESOLVE payload. He also founded Carnegie Mellon's Advanced Composites Lab – a research, training, design, and manufacturing lab specializing in high performance, lightweight composites for robotics.