Virgin Orbit has appointed a SpaceX veteran to be its new Vice President of Flight and Launch. It has appointed Tyler Grinnell to the position, the company announced June 25. As the company works to further evolve its commercial launch services, Grinnell will play a key role in enabling the Flight and Launch teams to achieve the operating pace and efficiencies required to serve the company’s growing customer manifest.

Grinnell has an interesting background. He spent 12 years at SpaceX, where he held a number of positions including Launch Engineer, Launch Lead Engineer for Instrumentation & Avionics, Lead Launch Operations Development Engineer, Senior Manager of Launch Operations Development, and most recently Director of Launch and Recovery Operations.

“The LauncherOne platform is one of innovation, and a major catalyst for rapid, reliable launch. Utilization of the unique 747-based launch capability has eliminated the cost and time associated with launch pad refurbishment, which is a major driver to launch cadence,” Grinnell said in a statement.