SpaceX SVP Tom Ochinero is leaving the firm in a rare superior-amount departure

One particular of SpaceX’s senior executives is leaving, CNBC has figured out, in a exceptional high-stage departure from Elon Musk’s place organization.

Tom Ochinero, SpaceX senior vice president of business organization, resigned on Monday, folks common with the matter explained to CNBC. Ochinero is leaving to show up at to a household medical make any difference, according to these people, who requested not to be named in get to focus on internal firm info.

SpaceX did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Ochinero’s departure. 

Ochinero, like quite a few of SpaceX’s dozen or so senior executives, has been with the firm for far more than a 10 years. He started his vocation at SpaceX as an engineer helping design and style the nosecone utilised on its Falcon 9 and Falcon Hefty rockets.

Due to the fact getting the lead on marketing SpaceX rockets and astronaut flights in 2019, Ochinero’s tenure integrated the steady expansion of the company’s market share in launching professional satellites, as nicely as several promotions for privately crewed spaceflights.

Ochinero was “individually accountable for in excess of a billion pounds of yearly earnings” at SpaceX, according to a biography from a place sector meeting late previous yr. He noted to the company’s president and COO, Gwynne Shotwell.

Stephanie Bednarek, SpaceX’s senior director of industrial start revenue, is staying tapped to consider Ochinero’s position at the business, sources informed CNBC.

Ochinero’s departure will come as the company prepares for the third examination flight of its upcoming-generation Starship rocket and expands its Starlink satellite internet company. The firm’s by now recognized a in the vicinity of-monopoly on the U.S. satellite launch market, because of to its workhorse Falcon rockets and the struggles of rivals to field operational rockets to contend.