John Thornton

John Thornton co-founded Astrobotic in 2007 with the mission to make space accessible to the world. Under his tenure as CEO, Astrobotic has become a world-leading lunar logistics company delivering cargo to the Moon for companies, governments, universities, non-profits, and individuals. The organization has secured more than $600M in NASA contracts to deliver instruments to the lunar surface, and launched America’s first commercial lunar lander in 2024. Additionally, the company has expanded its lunar rovers, space robotics, and lunar power infrastructure offerings with more than 70 commercial technology contracts. John founded and is the Chairman of the Board for the Moonshot Museum, a Pittsburgh-based non-profit dedicated to career development and access to the burgeoning space industry.

At Carnegie Mellon University, Thornton led the build of Scarab, a NASA concept rover for lunar drilling, and the first rover to carry a prototype of the NASA RESOLVE payload. Thornton also founded the Carnegie Mellon University Advanced Composites Lab, a research, training, design, and manufacturing program specializing in high performance, lightweight composites for robotics.