Bretton Alexander
President, Personal Spaceflight Federation;
Executive Director, Space Prizes and X Prize Cup, X Prize Foundation
Since December 2006, Bretton Alexander has been president of the Personal Spaceflight Federation, the industry association of businesses and organizations working to make commercial human spaceflight a reality. [Esther Dyson is a patron. Members include XCOR, Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, the X Prize Foundation, Rocketplane Kistler, Transformational Space Corporation (t/Space), Virgin Galactic, the (New Mexico) Spaceport America and pretty much the entire panoply of companies promising private space flights in the next few years.] The PSF's major activity is working to develop standards on issues such as insurance, liability, regulation and safety – all the issues the industry should be agreeing on rather than competing with each other
This is a part-time role; Alexander also serves as Washington-based Executive Director of Space Prizes for the X Prize Foundation. (Peter Diamandis of Zero-G is chairman.) Alexander leads the Foundation's efforts on the Google Lunar X PRIZE to send private rovers to the Moon, and the X PRIZE Cup annual space demonstration and exhibition.
From 2005 to 2007, Alexander worked as VP of Corporate and External Affairs for t/Space. Previously, he worked for five years as the Senior Policy Analyst for space issues in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he served Presidents Bush and Clinton. Alexander played a central role in the development of the Vision for Space Exploration announced by President Bush in January 2004.
Before that, Alexander held positions in the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, the Aerospace Corporation, and ANSER Corporation (where he knew Debra Facktor Lepore). He holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA.
