Derek Webber is the Washington DC Director of Spaceport Associates, and directed three landmark studies in commercial space business planning that established the existence of a space tourism market. He has provided testimony to the President’s Commission on the Future of the US Aerospace Industry, and has been recognized at the Space Tourism Society’s Orbit Awards for his contributions to the formation of the space tourism industry. Derek works on regulation of space tourism and is an active member of the Reusable Launch Vehicles Working Group and the Launch Operations Support Working Group of the Federal Aviation Authority’s COMSTAC Committee.
Derek’s career began as a launch vehicle and satellite engineer in the UK in what is now EADS/Astrium Space Systems. He became Head of Procurement at the satellite service provider Inmarsat, (responsible for contracting for over a billion dollars worth of communications satellites, their launch vehicles and ground segment), and Managing Director of Tachyon Europe (providing satellite broadband and Internet access across the continent).
Derek holds Degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Newcastle University (UK), and postgraduate qualifications in Space Science from University College London (UK). He is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.
His web-site is Spaceport Associates
