Executive Mosaic is pleased to present Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of the space business segment at Lockheed Martin, as a recipient of the 2021 Wash100 Award for his significant contributions to the federal sector, space domain and his drive to advance spacecraft development and other space tech capabilities.
For the sixth year, Ambrose has received a Wash100 Award, the most prestigious and respected award in all of government contracting (GovCon). He won the award for the first time in 2015 and has received the honor for the last five years running.
“Rick Ambrose is running perhaps the most powerful space operation on the planet. We’re counting on him as a nation to help stop our near peer adversaries from closing the gap on our nation’s lead in space,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the Wash100 Award. “Rick is a six time Wash100 Award winner with the last five years being a consecutive streak of recognition as an elite leader in GovCon. Rick is also Chairman of the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a spectacular accomplishment and confirmation of his own distinguished leadership.”
Visit Wash100.com to cast a vote for Rick Ambrose as the most significant executive of consequence to the GovCon sector. Cast your TEN votes TODAY to advocate your favorite leaders in the federal and government sectors. The elite leader with the most votes by April 30th will be recognized by the GovCon community as the industry’s most influential member.
Throughout 2021, Rick Ambrose has worked tirelessly to advance space technology, drive awareness for the space domain and push to improve collaboration, incorporate other emerging tech into the sector and address potential space threats that are a risk to our nation’s national security.
Most recently, Ambrose announced on March 16th, 2021 that his team had secured a contract to manufacture its first commercial “space domain awareness” payload for a host spacecraft intended for geosynchronous Earth orbit.
The Space Development Agency (SDA) initiative looks to strengthen on-orbit asset protection by ensuring space awareness of its activities in the space domain. Ambrose explained that this payload represents “the first of a capability that is available to support both commercial and government interests in hosting SDA sensors.” He also stated that Lockheed Martin expects to make the delivery within 22 months.
In addition to that initiative, Lockheed Martin announced an extension of its partnership with NEC to continue using the company’s System Invariant Analysis Technology in order to accelerate system delivery and simplify work processes by “proactively analyzing telemetry data.”
NEC’s partnership with with Lockheed Martin will also work to further advance the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in spacecraft development programs
“The power of AI is leveraged across our entire enterprise, and with a trusted partner like NEC, we gain the resources to expand its abilities at scale across our internal operations,” said six-time Wash100 Award recipient Rick Ambrose.
In Nov. 2020, Lockheed Martin received a $258.3 million contract to develop and demonstrate a prototype of the Evolved Strategic Satellite Communication (ESSC) payload for the U.S. Space Force. The military service wants to deploy classified information technology infrastructure for a defense satcom modernization push through June 2025 under the sole-source acquisition contract.
Ambrose argued that scheduling the migration from AEHF to ESS satellites could be complex given the need to ensure that the military and government have access to strategic communications at all times.
“Things never go precisely as planned,” he said. “And while [delaying launch] is good for smoothing the budget, it can risk the capability,” said Ambrose.
This acts as another indicator of Ambrose’s vision for the future of space technology because he advocated in Sept. 2020 that the public and private sectors should work to establish a diverse supply chain and marketplace to help the Space Force to address future requirements.
“We really encourage other investments in startups as we move forward to address these future threats in some ways we probably don’t even know about sitting here today,” Ambrose elaborated. “In order to really meet the needs of the Space Force we have to have a very vibrant marketplace and supply chain that feeds everything,” Ambrose added.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Lockheed Martin and Rick Ambrose for his sixth Wash100 Award win in 2021. His influence and strong leadership continues to drive our nation’s space capabilities forward and Ambrose’s vision will be pivotal in establishing U.S. dominance in space technology in the competitive years to come.
