Sean Mulligan is the Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (Virginia Space). As a political subdivision of the Commonwealth, Virginia Space owns and operates the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) collocated as a tenant organization of the NASA Wallops Flight
Facility. In his current role, Sean works closely with the Executive Director, the Executive Committee, and the Virginia Space Board of Directors to manage the organization, grow the business, and pursue the strategic goals of Virginia Space.

Mr. Mulligan began his career at MARS as one of the original engineers to design, build and test the Pad-0A launch facility for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket. He then served as the Director of MARS from 2012 through 2021, overseeing a transformation and increase of Spaceport capability, and supporting seventeen launch operations for Virginia Space. As MARS Director, Mr. Mulligan led the Spaceport through the development and construction of the Payload Processing Facility, the Unmanned Aerial Systems Airfield, as well as Pad-0C (Launch Complex-2) and the Integration and Control Facility (ICF) for Virginia’s newest launch customer, Rocket Lab.

Mr. Mulligan has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware and an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He is married with two children and enjoys coaching both of his sons’ Little League teams.