George Whitesides | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2009 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | George Thomas Whitesides 1973 or 1974 (age 49–50) |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Loretta Hidalgo |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | George M. Whitesides (father) |
| Education | Princeton University (BA) King's College, Cambridge (MPhil) |
| Awards | NASA Distinguished Service Medal (2010) |
| Website | Campaign website |
George Thomas Whitesides (born 1973/1974)[1] is an American businessman and public official. He was CSO (Chief Space Officer)[2] and long time CEO of Virgin Galactic,[3] a firm developing commercial space vehicles at the Mojave Air and Space Port. He still serves as a member of the Virgin Galactic Advisory Board.[4] Whitesides was previously Chief of Staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Administrator Charles Bolden,[5] a position to which he was named after serving on the NASA transition team for the incoming Obama administration.[6] On February 22, 2023, he announced his candidacy for California's 27th congressional district in the 2024 election.
Whitesides studied in Newton North High School, graduating in 1992.[7] Afterward, he attended Princeton University, graduating from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 1996.[1][8] He served for four years on Princeton's Board of Trustees upon graduation.[6] He later earned an MPhil in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing from King's College, Cambridge.[5] He was also a Fulbright Scholar in Tunisia.[1][9]
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From 2004 to 2008, Whitesides served as the Executive Director of the National Space Society.[10] He is the co-creator of Yuri's Night, alongside his wife Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides.[11][1] In 2007, Whitesides was named Senior Advisor to Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism company.[12]
Whitesides worked on the presidential transition of Barack Obama.[13] After Obama took office, Whitesides was appointed as chief of staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, where he served until May 7, 2010.[1][6] Upon his departure, he was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the agency's highest award.[9][14]
After leaving NASA, Whitesides returned to Virgin Galactic, where he became the first person in the company to hold the CEO title and later its first CSO.[1]
Whitesides was the Chairman of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Working Group of COMSTAC, the advisory committee for the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Division.[1] He was also a board member of Astronomers Without Borders and the Space Generation Foundation.[6][5]
In March 2021, Whitesides announced he would be leaving Virgin Galactic to pursue public service, but would still be in an advisory position to the publicly traded company.[15]
He has also served as a coach for Zero Gravity Corporation's parabolic flight service. In July 2021, as co-founder and project lead of the SciAccess Initiative's Mission: AstroAccess, opened applications for people with disabilities to partake in a ZERO-G parabolic flight, which was initially scheduled on October 17, 2021 in Long Beach, California.[16] Over a year later, on December 15, 2022, its first formal research parabolic flight was flown, with 14 disability ambassadors from 5 countries in the mission.[17]
On February 22, 2023, Whitesides announced he was running for California's 27th congressional district in the 2024 election as a Democrat.[18]
George is married to Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides, and they have two children.[1][5] His father is George M. Whitesides, a professor of chemistry at Harvard University.[1]
