Swami Iyer
President, Virgin Galactic
In 2020, Swami Iyer merged three classified subsidiaries at GKN into a single defense company technology company. His team had key positions in many platforms, either in production or development.
“Where human spaceflight was once in the realm of dreams and imagination, it is now on the verge of becoming an everyday reality not only for professional astronauts and scientists, but for ordinary space enthusiasts too,” Iyer said.
“Our recent unveiling of the SpaceShip III class of vehicles underpins Virgin Galactic’s culture of innovation, and we will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible, to achieve our mission of opening space to future generations and give them the opportunity to look back at the world we live in from a whole new perspective,” he added.
Why Watch
The first human travelled to space April 12, 1961. In the 60 years since that historic milestone, the nation has sent nearly 600 others to space. Virgin Galactic envisions a future in which it completes 400 flights per year per spaceport. This is an inflection point in Virgin Galactic’s journey, and the team is designing and building the fleet of space vehicles that will make this ambition a reality.
In 2021, Iyer’s team is focused on ramping up production to expand Virgin Galactic’s fleet of space vehicles as it works toward running a regular commercial spaceline that opens space to all.