Women in Aerospace : Leadership : Board and Officers : Biography

Debra Facktor
Airbus US Space & Defense

Debra Facktor Lepore is president of DFL Space LLC, a consulting firm focused on engineering innovative business solutions and entrepreneurial business strategies, with an emphasis on mentoring and leadership. Her unique blend of technical, business, leadership, and international skills have been proven over more than 20 years in entrepreneurial and established markets, particularly in aerospace.

She is also president and an owner of AirLaunch LLC, a small business based in Kirkland, Washington, and an owner of Protoflight LLC, based in Mojave, California. AirLaunch was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Air Force to develop a small launch vehicle to affordably and responsively deploy small satellites to space from a C-17 cargo airplane. The company received approximately $38 million in research & development funding and was awarded 2 patents for innovative airdrop techniques. AirLaunch set the records for the longest (66 feet) and heaviest (72,000 pounds) objects ever dropped from a C-17 aircraft and for the longest duration vapor pressurization (VaPak) engine test fire (at 191 seconds). The DARPA/Air Force program concluded in late 2008 and the company is now in hiatus.

Before joining AirLaunch in 2005, Ms. Lepore was vice president of business development and strategic planning for Kistler Aerospace Corporation in Kirkland, Washington, another entrepreneurial start-up business that was developing a privately funded reusable aerospace vehicle. She identified, developed, and executed new business opportunities, as well as conducted short-term and long-term strategic planning. Upon joining Kistler in 1997, she became a key player in raising over $600 million private capital; in negotiating and obtaining an innovative commercial NASA contract under the Space Launch Initiative (SLI) Program valued at up to $135 million; and in leading an unsolicited proposal to NASA, which ultimately led, nearly 10 years later, to what is now NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) programs.

Prior to that, Debra Facktor Lepore served as chief of Moscow operations for ANSER’s Center for International Aerospace Cooperation in Moscow, Russia, and as a project leader and senior engineer at ANSER in Arlington, Virginia. Over the course of her career, she has conducted business and interacted with government and commercial entities around the world, including the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Japan, Canada, India, and Australia. U.S. government clients included NASA, U.S. Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, National Space Council, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, and the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. Projects included government and commercial space launch systems, alternative launch concepts for defense systems, propulsion, human spaceflight, and aerospace technology.

Ms. Lepore was recently named one of the “100 Top Women in Seattle Tech” on www.techflash.com and as the President of the Washington State Women’s Forum. She is a member of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), 2009 Chair of the Board of Women in Aerospace (WIA), an Executive in Residence at Babson College Center for Women’s Leadership, one of Puget Sound Business Journal’s 2008 Women of Influence and 2006 “40 Under 40”, and recipient of WIA’s 2007 International Achievement Award. She is also on the board of WP Aerospace (a start-up company focused on small satellites). She served a one-year term on the Aerospace Industries Association’s (AIA) Board of Governors in 2008, was the 2007 Chair of AIA’s Space Council, and is in her second appointed term on the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC). She also represented AirLaunch as a member of the California Space Authority (CSA). Ms. Lepore is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), an academician in the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), and an alumna of the International Space University (ISU) (1989 Summer Session Program in Strasbourg, France).

Debra Facktor Lepore earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1988 (magna cum laude) and a Master of Science degree in 1989, both in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan.