Executive Mosaic is honored to present Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of the space business at Lockheed Martin, as an inductee into the 2020 Wash100 Award for driving the company’s satellite capabilities as well as the nation’s upcoming lunar and space exploration missions.
This marks the fifth overall Wash100 Award for Ambrose. He’s also received this honor for the last four consecutive years. Ambrose won a 2019 Wash100 Award for leading the improvement of space technologies, including utilizing the cloud for space missions.
Under Ambrose’s leadership, Lockheed Martin secured a potential $4.6 billion indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract from NASA in Sept. 2019 to produce six Orion spacecraft to transport astronauts to the moon.
“This contract clearly shows NASA’s commitment not only to Orion, but also to Artemis and its bold goal of sending humans to the Moon in the next five years,” said Ambrose.
The Orion Production and Operations contract includes a $2.7 billion initial order for three spacecraft for Artemis III to V lunar missions and an additional $1.9 billion for three vehicles in fiscal year 2022 to support Artemis VI through VIII missions.
“This contract secures Orion production through the next decade, demonstrating NASA’s commitment to establishing a sustainable presence at the Moon to bring back new knowledge and prepare for sending astronauts to Mars,” NASA Administrator and fellow Wash100 award recipient Jim Bridenstine said in a statement published Tuesday.
In Jan. 2020, Lockheed Martin announced that Pony Express 1, the company’s first smart satellite, had launched aboard its Tyvak 6U spacecraft. The upgraded satellite has integrated technology that will allow the company to conduct more thorough tests in-orbit.
"Early on-orbit data show Pony Express 1 is performing its important pathfinding mission very well. Lockheed Martin's HiveStar technology on board will give our customers unparalleled speed, resiliency and flexibility for their changing mission needs by unlocking even greater processing power in space," said Ambrose.
More specifically, Ambrose also had an interview later that month with Yahoo Finance regarding the current challenges of the space market and the upcoming manned lunar mission to return to the moon in the next five years. He believes that we have the capability to complete our current lunar mission, but we have to act quickly and reuse a lot of systems that we have today.
When asked about the national security risks posed by China’s satellite projects, Ambrose said that, “I like to put it in different framing as not a space race, but for space to be viable, it has to be a vibrant marketplace, like any other industry. There’s 75 space-faring nations today. And as we move forward, supply chains, competitors, for it to be vibrant, we have to have that level of competition,” he added.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Lockheed Martin and Rick Ambrose for his 2020 Wash100 Award. Ambrose has accumulated a lot of experience across his 40 years in the defense, aerospace and space industries. His latest Wash100 Award win continues to demonstrate the level of vision and success that Ambrose has been able to achieve with the company and for the GovCon sector.
About The Wash100
This year represents our sixth annual Wash100 Award selection. The Wash100 is the premier group of private and public sector leaders selected by Executive Mosaic’s organizational and editorial leadership as the most influential leaders in the GovCon sector. These leaders demonstrate skills in leadership, innovation, achievement, and vision.
Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2020 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2020.
