Lockheed's space business leader to retire

The head of Lockheed Martin’s nearly $11 billion space segment is calling it a career at the company after nearly two decades there.

Rick Ambrose plans to retire from Lockheed on March 1 but will remain in his role as executive vice president of space until a successor is announced, the company said Thursday.

Ambrose has led the space segment since 2013 and is also a former chairman of the board of directors for United Launch Alliance, the 50-50 joint venture Lockheed is involved in alongside Boeing.

His career at Lockheed prior to the space leadership post includes a stint as president of its former Information Systems & Global Solutions-National business, whose customers included the U.S. intelligence community and international partners.

Lockheed touts its space business as including major systems for satellites, human spaceflight, strategic and missile defense, satellite command-and-control, sensor and data processing including predictive analytics and big data applications, space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft and a range of sensing, communications and exploration payloads.