MEET OUR EXPERTS
Some of our Launch On Demand Team
Launch On Demand is led by aerospace and technology pioneers who recognize the opportunity to create new value for the space economy. Our staff members have extensive experience in U.S. government ranges and are committed to ending the industry’s reliance on 1960’s practices and technologies. In addition to tearing down stovepipes and inefficiencies, they have developed a federated and patent-pending architecture to network and define a safe, effective, and efficient range.
Burton Catledge (Chief Executive Officer)
18 years of launch, acquisition, strategy, finance, and orbital safety experience. Prior to founding Launch on Demand he was the Commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations Group, 45th Space Wing, with operations at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Kennedy Space Center. He has extensive knowledge and operational experience at both the United States Eastern and Western Ranges.
Kevin Hatton (Chief Operating Officer)
From 2016-2019, Kevin was Mission Assurance Manager at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), responsible for managing launch and reentry, including all FAA licensing and permitting activities for Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon, and Starship. Hatton was employed at the Federal Aviation Administration before that, where he acquired over 20 years of experience in Air Traffic Control, Air Traffic Management, and NextGen research. He was FAA Program Manager for Space Vehicle Operations (SVO) and developed the SVO Concept of Operations. He has authored numerous papers on aerospace topics.
Lisa Catledge (Contracting/Customer Relations Manager)
Lisa oversees our business development and sales strategy and objectives, including collaborating, developing, and executing integrated sales initiatives. She strives to ensure our clients realize the full benefit of the multiple solutions Launch on Demand offers.
Subash Chellappan (Chief Technology Officer)
Subash Chellappan is Launch On Demans's Chief Technology Officer (CTO). His career spans 20 years across Systems Engineering, Product and Software Development, and consulting. Subash brings a wealth of knowledge in Digital Transformation programs and has also served multiple industries, having previously worked with Deloitte Consulting overseeing Digital Transformations programs for clients in Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Oil, and Gas.
Louverture Jones (Chief Information Security Officer)
21-year technology leader serving organizations with expertise in IT, Cybersecurity and Privacy industry; capturing and delivering transformative security services and technical integration guidance. Provided Multinational Technology and Software companies with technical solutions and guidance in complying with Federal Trade Compliance, Privacy, and Security regulations. Past successes include the integration of cyber governance and risk management programs, enterprise security technology investment planning, secure application design, penetration and compliance testing, and vulnerability assessments.
Marie-Pierre Grondin, Esq. (Chief Legal Officer)
Marie has spent half of her 20+ year career in private practice at large law firms, such as Duane Morris, Reed Smith and, most recently, K&L Gates. The other half of her professional life has been working directly with companies as a C-suite executive and chief counsel to a publicly-traded real estate developer as well as a global aerospace company. She has helped grow businesses via mergers and acquisitions and solutions-based financing.
Marshall Heard (Senior Advisor)
Marsh enjoyed a 55+ year career in the aerospace industry and was a Boeing Company Vice President. He has served on numerous cabinet-level panels and commissions, including the Defense Science Board and the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee, and has been a frequent witness before the US Congress.
Don Musser (Airspace Coordinator)
31 years of experience as a FAA air traffic controller in both Miami and Jacksonville Centers. During his time with the FAA, he worked in the Traffic Management Unit, Quality Assurance, Airspace, and Management. His final position for over 12 years was as the Military Operations Specialist at Jacksonville Center, where his duties included redesigning special use airspace to meet next generation aircraft, military/special missions, letters of agreement, and spaceport operations. Don is a graduate of Florida State University with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in mathematics.
Tiffany Tucker (Executive Assistant)
25+ years of administration and operations and information technology experience. Tiffany is passionate about helping others and has extensive experience with Google, technology and apps, program set-up, communication & scheduling, travel planning, financial, contract management, project management, as well as being a mom to four children—three if you don't count her husband.
John Hearin (Chief Engineer)
25+ years of experience in spaceflight engineering and operations. John started with the Space Shuttle launch team in 1985 and worked with the SLS, Atlas V, and Vulcan programs before joining Launch on Demand. He holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. from the Florida Institute of Technology.
Kevin Lowdermilk (CFO)
Kevin brings over 25 years of aerospace, defense, and space experience to Launch on Demand. He has served as the Vice President of Finance for a multi-national business unit of Rolls-Royce, the CFO and later the CEO of the Aerospace and Defense Software As A Service company—Exostar, the CEO of defense aftermarket company—ISO Group and the CFO of space launch provider, Vaya Space. He has also held Board positions for a number of companies across a variety of industries. Kevin is a growth-oriented CFO with both M&A and Capital Markets experience. He earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from Western Kentucky University and his MBA from Ball State University.
Al Rollins (Safety and Security)
30+ year career as a leader and senior executive in the field of law enforcement, excelling in the areas of criminal intelligence, major crimes, data and analysis, and leadership principles. Applying best practices in information sharing and intelligence, Al is highly regarded as a law enforcement/safety/security expert.
Capable.
In 2018 a small group of space enthusiasts met informally to discuss the future of the space industry in light of mega constellations, impending space tourism, increasing commercial launches, and a host of other emerging interests. The general feeling was that the increasing operations tempo would stress the current spaceports and ranges and see the introduction of new spaceports and additions to existing facilities. The obvious “hole” in the picture is “What would happen on the range side of the equation”. Space based ranges and ranges of the future had been being discussed for years but there was little evidence that they were actually materializing.
This discussion led to the formation of Launch On Demand whose primary objective became one of providing range services that would allow future commercial launch users to get to and from orbit at least as safely as today’s systems but at lower cost, from any terrestrial location, at virtually anytime, and without closing down major blocks of the National Airspace and Maritime operations for long periods of time. In the intervening years LOD has grown from a handful of people to an umbrella organization that includes more than a half dozen subject matter expert companies and hundreds of talented individuals to help us achieve our objectives.
The LOD cadre has grown significantly but perhaps more importantly is that we have now interviewed hundreds of individuals in the space community. These interviews have been with recognized experts from ever sector of the space spectrum. We have spoken with representatives of the launch vehicle fraternity from the established big names to the newest of start up’s. We have talked with every domestic spaceport and the major international operators. We have spent hours with government officials from every service, and agency from local leaders to state, federal and international offices. We have chatted with payload users, builders, processors, and those who benefit from the on orbit collection and dissemination of data. Some of our more enlightening conversations have come with the investor community. These people put up the capital in recognition of unique nature of the space oriented risk-reward model. We augmented the view of all of these interviewees by speaking with the major professional associations to see if the opinion of their membership agrees with our findings, and similarly we went to the academic community who are looking even beyond what we think of as NewSpace to understand what they think is just over the horizon. Recently we added hypersonic’s to our vocabulary and are in the process of determining how best to provide testing services to this segment of the industry.
The upshot of all of these interviews is two fold. First, there are absolutely common FAQ’s among the various sectors of the community. All spaceport operators want to better understand the facilities and services they must provide to attract new users and how best to capitalize these acquisitions. They also want to know how to make money from their spaceport. Launch vehicle operators want to know what they must bring to a spaceport that is typically not included as a spaceport provided capability. Investors want to know about the addressable market, technical risk, and how what they can anticipate for revenue and profit potential. Each sector of the industry has it’s own set of FAQ’s and they are absolutely common across the individual sector participants. Second, we at LOD in addition to having been exposed to the industry FAQ’s are now in the position where we have heard most, if not all, of the conventional wisdom as to the answers to the questions. Plus we have formed our own answers and tried them out by return visits to many of the people we interviewed.
In addition to the services LOD offers elsewhere on this site (Spaceport and Launch Solutions) we are pleased to offer general advisory services. LOD can not only answer your typical FAQ’s regardless of where you set on the space industry spectrum but we are structured such that our subject matter experts can work with you to tailor answers to your unique and specific requirements.
If you’re ready for answers, starting the conversation is simple…
