Todd Lindner Resigns as CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port
Updated 8:25 at 12:53 p.m. PDT: Provided more details about Lindner’s reason for resigning.
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Todd Lindner resigned earlier this month as CEO of the Mojave Air and Spaceport at Rutan Field after 16 months on the job.
“Todd has a family member with severe health issues and needed to relocate back to Florida to be near family,” said Jim Balentine, a member of the spaceport’s Board of Directors, in an email.
Lindner had given two week’s notice prior to the Aug. 2 meeting of the spaceport’s Board of Directors, a spaceport spokesperson said. Meeting minutes indicate the board appointed Tim Reid, the spaceport’s director of operations, as acting CEO while a search for a permanent replacement is undertaken. Board members also thanked Lindner for his service.
Lindner took over as head of the spaceport in April 2021. He replaced Karina Drees, who left to become president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation in Washington, D.C.
Prior to moving to Mojave, Lindner had been director of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority’s Cecil Spaceport in Florida. The Mojave Board of Directors selected him from among 100 applicants.
Lindner, who is an experienced pilot, was the first Mojave spaceport CEO to have previous airport management experience.
“With 30 years of aviation management experience, Todd Lindner understands the unique financial and operating requirements of an air and spaceport. He is also experienced in working with state and federal government agencies to obtain the resources necessary to manage Mojave’s operations,” said then-board President Jim Balentine.
5 responses to “Todd Lindner Resigns as CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port”
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Maybe “family reasons” is “family didnt want to live in Mojave…”
Or he just got too frustrated dealing with California’s micro-management approach to regulation.
MASP is an air and space port. It mostly deals with the FAA. It operates as a self-governing airport district with a board elected by the local population under California law. The board meetings and minutes I have seen do not indicate the airport has been grappling with any especially serious issues with the state.
I believe Stratolaunch operates out of there and I am a fan of that aircraft. Not so much the idea of air launching satellites but several other applications for the airframe. I recall looking at a 250 ton payload and launching that big of a rocket is interesting; A F9 second stage weighs about 50 tons and might be able to get a couple tons into orbit from stratolaunch altitude/speed. Perhaps a 250 ton “mini-shiny” might make for a completely reusable system.
I updated this story with more details from board member Jim Balentine.