Published: Dec. 16, 2013

My recent trip to Orbital Sciences, the rocket and satellite manufacturer located outside Washington, was so interesting that I decided to devote another column to the company.

It took several years to get the interview with Orbital’s chief executive and co-founder, David W. Thompson. The 58-year-old rocket scientist had a lot to say about the business of space travel, and about how to keep the excitement pumped up at a hit-driven company built on space exploration.

Orbital, based in Dulles, has $1.4 billion in annual revenue. The company has existed for about 30 years, 22 of them as a public company. Half of the company’s 3,600 employees are rocket scientists or engineers. About 2,000 work in the Washington area.

Thompson has a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master’s degree from the California Institute of Technology, and a master’s from Harvard Business School. Continue reading the article here.