George Thomas Whitesides was CSO (Chief Space Officer) and long time CEO of Virgin Galactic, a firm developing commercial space vehicles at the Mojave Air and Space Port. He still serves as a member of the Virgin Galactic Advisory Board. He studied in Newton North High School. Whitesides was previously Chief of Staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a position to which he was named after serving on the NASA transition team for the incoming Obama administration.