WASHINGTON — German launch vehicle startup Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has replaced its chief executive as it works towards a second chance for its first launch.
In an April 11 statement not widely publicized by the company, RFA announced that Stefan Tweraser, who had been chief executive since October 2021, had been replaced by Indulis Kalnins.
The announcement did not give a reason for the change, but it suggested that the company was seeking someone with expertise in the aerospace industry to lead the company. Kalnins is on the aerospace faculty of a German university, Hochschule Bremen, and has been managing director of OHB Cosmos, which focused on launch services.
“For the tasks that now lie ahead, we are focusing on technical progress and the path to the launchpad,” Jean-Jacques Dordain, chairman of the supervisory board at RFA, said in a statement. “With the wide range of skills that Dr. Kalnins brings to a highly motivated team, we believe that RFA is well on its way to continuing to prepare for the first launch attempt as the priority to get access to the market of launch services.”
Tweraser, by contrast, came from outside the space industry. He joined RFA after past work that included being a consultant at McKinsey & Company, country director for the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region at Google and executive at music streaming company Deezer.
At the time RFA hired him, his experience outside the industry was seen as an asset. “We deliberately looked for someone with extensive experience in managing enterprises outside the space sector to bring new expertise and additional impetus to the next steps of RFA’s development,” Dordain said in a 2021 statement about hiring Tweraser.
“Under his leadership, we will further professionalize RFA’s processes and structures. This will help us to transform our rapid technological progress into a sustainable business model,” Stefan Brieschenk, chief operating officer of RFA,…
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