A former SpaceX executive has quit British rocket start-up Skyrora less than six months after he joined.
Former SpaceX Executive Quits British Rocket Start-up
Lee Rosen, who had joined Edinburgh-headquartered Skyrora as its chief operating officer, left the company in November, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Former SpaceX Executive Quits British Rocket Start-up
A Skyrora spokesman said Mr Rosen had left for “personal reasons” and planned to return to California.
Former SpaceX Executive Quits British Rocket Start-up
It is the latest blow to the space venture that is hoping to use a rocket base on the Shetland islands to fire small satellites into space.
Former SpaceX Executive Quits British Rocket Start-up
The company’s first suborbital launch test of its Skylark L rocket from a pad in Iceland failed, with the rocket crashing into the Norwegian ocean about 500 metres from the coast. The company blamed the failure on a “software related anomaly”.
Former SpaceX Executive Quits British Rocket Start-up
However, despite so far failing to get a successful launch into orbit, revenues at Skyrora Ventures, its parent company, soared 300pc last year.
Former SpaceX Executive Quits British Rocket Start-up
According to the company’s annual report, revenues jumped from £3.8m to £15.2m. It reported a loss of £6.3m.
Former SpaceX Executive Quits British Rocket Start-up
Skyrora Ventures said it had continued to develop its “non-space business, including online business advertising services”.
Its parent company owns a network of ad-tech and affiliate marketing companies, as well as dating apps and horoscope products, that provide funding for Skyrora’s parent company. Skyrora said it continued to receive funding support from investors and was in the process of raising additional grants from the European Space Agency.
Skyrora was founded by Ukranian entrepreneur Volodymyr Levykin, a former executive at now defunct dating empire Cupid PLC.
Its investors include Ukrainian internet entrepreneur Max Polyakov, according to a report by Snopes. Mr Polyakov is a shareholder at Hong Kong-based Digitroom Holdings, which owns a stake in Skyrora.
Mr Polyakov, who founded and listed Cupid in…
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