Lockheed hires former acting NASA chief

Lockheed Martin hires former acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot to the space business' leadership team.

Lockheed Martin said Monday it has hired former acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot as a vice president in the company's space segment, effective May 6.

Lightfoot will serve as VP of business development for the defense company's $9 billion-revenue space business with responsibility over strategic planning, new technology concepts and strategies, Lockheed said Monday.

He led NASA on an acting basis for one year until his retirement in April 2018 and prior to that was the space agency's associate administrator for five-and-a-half years.

Lightfoot is also a former director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Since Lightfoot retired from NASA, he has worked as president of Huntsville, Alabama-based government services company LSINC Corp.