From left Firefly director Mark Watt, Firefly CEO Tom Markusic, Firefly vice president of business development Les Kovacs, and Firefly co-founder Max Polyakov. Photo Credit Firefly Aerospace. Photo Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace has appointed Leslie Kovacs as vice president of business development. Kovacs has more than 30 years of space launch industry experience, most recently at United Launch Alliance (ULA) as director of executive branch affairs, where he helped shape federal policy and acquisition approaches for the $57 billion Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Kovacs will be based in Firefly’s Washington, D.C. office.

Additional roles in Kovacs’ career include acting as a launch controller at Cape Canaveral, developing architectures for lunar and Martian surface habitation, leading concept of operations efforts for launch vehicles to replace the Space Shuttle, and developing the U.S. Air Force Spacelift course, where he instructed classes in orbital mechanics, launch vehicle design and range and flight safety operations.