John Garvey Takes Over Vector as Jim Cantrell Departs
UPDATE: Berger reports two Vector employees told him the company laid off all its employees today.
Eric Berger reports that rumors of Jim Cantrell’s departure from the role of CEO at Vector are true amid reports that the launch provider is experiencing financial problems.
A spokeswoman for Vector did not comment [financial problems]. However, she did confirm the company has parted ways with its chief executive: “Jim Cantrell is no longer with Vector effective today. John Garvey has assumed the role of CEO.”
The company has been working on developing its Vector-R vehicle and trying to prepare it for a suborbital flight this summer. In an interview in April, Cantrell told Ars that he hoped to fly an upgraded version, Vector-R B1003, on an orbital flight from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska before the end of this year. The financial difficulties have reportedly arisen just after Vector received some good news in the form of a launch contract from the US Air Force.
This week, the U.S. Air Force awarded Vector a contract worth $3.4 million to orbit satellites under the Small Rocket Program-Orbital program.
5 responses to “John Garvey Takes Over Vector as Jim Cantrell Departs”
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Predictable.
The new crop of small-launch providers is mostly powered by “other people’s money,” and copious hype. Some small-space promoters believe in testing P.T Barnum’s statement that “There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute.”
The taxpayers supporting Spaceport Camden, where the amateur rocket picture accompanying this story was launched, are similarly victims of small-space rah!rah! and unfulfilled promises. At least Jim Cantrell doesn’t have to worry about coming back to Spaceport Camden to face “bug bites, alligators, snakes and wild pigs.”
Someone should look into how government contracts are awarded to unstable companies.
Not a lot of point in looking. Government functionaries are no more immune to being taken in by a good honky front than anyone else. The late blood testing company Theranos had a regular Washington power elite Who’s Who on its board. Vector, whether entirely scam or not, was small potatoes compared to Theranos. Even so, the government routinely wastes vastly greater sums on long-established companies that end up not being able to do some contracted-for job than it does on Johnny-come-lately flashes in the pan. The legacy aerospace majors have been among the worst repeat offenders of this sort for decades now.
2nd time they have gone bust?
Nope, the 1st. But Garvey was launching his rockets longer than Carmack, using the “Prospector” brand, using a university as a base. Vector was supposed to be his ticket to orbit.
Some more news…
http://www.tucsonsentinel.c…
Failure to launch? Vector ousts Tucson CEO; rocket firm locks out employees
Updated Aug 11, 2019, 5:18 pm
Originally posted Aug 10, 2019, 2:12 pm
Dylan Smith
TucsonSentinel.com
“Vector had inked a lease with Pima County in 2016 to build a 60,000-square-foot headquarters and rocket factory on 15 acres south ofTucson International Airport, but didn’t follow through with construction.”
“Company employees in Tucson, and at Vector sites in Huntington Beach and San Jose, Calif., said on social media Friday that they had been locked out of their offices when they showed up for work. Some indicated that they had been laid off.”