Company Recruits USAF Reserve Major as Chief Mission Commander

David Lessick, an Air Force Reserve Major, has been recruited by AeraSpaceTours as the Chief Mission Commander of the Altairis Rocket which will begin taking passengers into space in 2006. In this role, the company says he will follow in the footsteps of the other pioneer-astronauts and test pilots who made the dream of space flight possible for a fortunate few.

"With safety being of paramount importance to us and to our customers, it is essential that our mission commander has the experience and abilities of Chief Mission Commander Lessick. We are pleased an officer of his caliber would join in our efforts to make space travel accessible to the masses," said Company Founder, Chief Scientist and CEO Bill Sprague.

In the Air Force Reserves, Major David Lessick is the Spacecraft Bus Division Chief for the Advanced-EHF Program, MILSATCOM Joint Program Office, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California. As such he is responsible for managing the research, design, development and acquisition of the Advanced-EHF satellite systems.

"Going into space has been a dream of mine since I was a small boy growing up in the suburbs of Chicago," said Chief Mission Commander Lessick. "I always thought I would serve as part of the United States Space Program and that it was partly why I joined the Air Force, but doing this as part of a civilian effort is even more exciting because, eventually, we will make the dream of visiting space a reality for thousands of people from all over the world. Perhaps sharing this perspective of our world will help us see each other as interdependent as we really are, and hopefully inspire a little more peace in this world for all of us to enjoy. Besides that, like our AeraSpaceTours customers, I'm looking forward to doing something that will be an absolute thrill for myself, as well as give my family something to brag about for generations to come."

FMI: www.aeraspacetours.com/home.html