Issued on behalf of Starfighters Space, Inc.
Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE: FJET) has launched a Strategic Advisory Board and named retired astronaut and former NASA Deputy Administrator Frederick D. Gregory as its inaugural member, a credibility signal as the company scales hypersonic flight testing and air-launch operations.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 26, 2026 /CNW/ -- USA News Group News Commentary - When a small, fast-moving company lands an advisor of genuine national stature, it is worth paying attention to. On its latest announcement, Starfighters Space, Inc. (NYSE: FJET), the company operating the world's only commercial fleet of flight-ready Mach 2+ supersonic aircraft, did exactly that, forming a new Strategic Advisory Board and naming retired astronaut and former NASA Deputy Administrator Frederick D. Gregory as its inaugural member.
Key Takeaways
-- Starfighters Space (NYSE: FJET) formed a Strategic Advisory Board and
appointed Frederick D. Gregory, retired astronaut and former NASA Deputy
Administrator, as its inaugural member.
-- Gregory brings a rare résumé: three Space Shuttle missions
(455+ hours in space), former NASA Acting Administrator, former head of
NASA Safety & Mission Assurance, and direct experience with the F-104
Starfighter, the very aircraft Starfighters flies.
-- Starfighters operates the world's only commercial fleet of flight-ready
Mach 2+ supersonic aircraft from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and is
advancing STARLAUNCH, its responsive air-launch platform.
-- The move lands amid a defense and space-testing spending surge; FJET sits
in the broader trade alongside Karman Holdings $(KRMN)$, AST
SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS), BlackSky (NYSE: BKSY), and Boeing $(BA)$.
A Heavyweight Joins the Cockpit-Side
The board was created to give Starfighters streamlined access to experienced space, defense, government, and technical leaders, offering subject-matter expertise and mentorship as the company expands its high-speed space-testing services, live atmospheric flight activities, and future air-launch initiatives. Gregory is the first name on it, and a marquee one.
Why Gregory Matters
Colonel Gregory's career spans nearly every layer of American spaceflight. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 1978, he logged more than 455 hours in space across three Space Shuttle missions, serving as Spacecraft Commander on Discovery (STS-33) and Atlantis (STS-44). He went on to senior NASA leadership, ultimately serving as the agency's Deputy Administrator and Acting Administrator, and earlier as Associate Administrator for Safety and Mission Assurance, the role responsible for the safety culture underpinning the nation's most critical space programs.
For Starfighters, the fit is unusually precise. As a decorated U.S. Air Force test pilot, Gregory has direct operational experience with the F-104 Starfighter, the exact platform the company flies. An advisor who has both run NASA's safety apparatus and personally flown the aircraft at the center of the business is a rare combination, and it speaks directly to the discipline required in high-velocity flight testing.
"Fred has the perfect background to help Starfighters Space grow," said Tim Franta, Chief Executive Officer of Starfighters Space. "His unique experience as a pilot, astronaut, former Deputy Administrator of NASA, and especially as the former head of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA provides a strategic perspective that very few individuals in the world can offer. Just as importantly, Fred deeply understands the F-104 platform and the rigorous culture of high-velocity flight testing."
Franta added that Gregory's focus on safety culture is exactly what the company values most: "I couldn't be happier or in better hands than with Fred Gregory reviewing our safety and mission assurance practices and procedures. I truly appreciate his commitment to keeping us focused on what is most important."
Gregory framed the opportunity in mission terms: "Starfighters Space possesses unique capabilities that can support a wide range of commercial, research, government, and national security missions. I am honored to join the Strategic Advisory Board and look forward to helping the Company continue expanding its role in space testing, space research, and future space-access opportunities."
The Business Behind the Headline
Operating from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Starfighters maintains the world's only commercial fleet of flight-ready F-104 supersonic aircraft capable of sustained Mach 2+ operations. That fleet is the foundation for a business focused on high-speed flight operations, hypersonic testing, space research, and air-launch. Its centerpiece development program, STARLAUNCH, is a responsive airborne launch platform designed to support commercial, government, research, and national-security missions, with capabilities spanning payload deployment, airborne space testing, microgravity and high-speed flight environments, and reusable airborne launch infrastructure.
The timing is notable. Defense and space-testing budgets are climbing, with the House Armed Services Committee signaling a roughly trillion-dollar baseline defense budget as a permanent planning floor and the Pentagon investing to expand hypersonic flight-test throughput, an area where capacity has become a binding constraint across the industry. A company that can put experimental payloads into high-speed flight environments quickly and repeatedly is positioned squarely in that demand. Adding an advisor of Gregory's stature is the kind of credibility marker that can matter when the customers are government agencies and defense programs.
The Broader Space & Hypersonic Trade
Starfighters is a small, specialized entrant in a sector drawing heavy institutional capital. Four names help frame the landscape, though each carries its own risk profile and none is a proxy for FJET. Karman Holdings (NYSE: KRMN) is the closest thematic fit: it designs payload-protection, propulsion, and interstage systems for missile-defense, hypersonics, and space-launch programs, and posted record fiscal 2025 revenue of about US$471.5 million, up roughly 37%, while raising 2026 guidance to the US$720--735 million range, a direct read on how fast hypersonic-related demand is growing. AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ: ASTS) represents the well-capitalized new-space cohort: a direct-to-device satellite-broadband builder with roughly US$3.5 billion in cash and 2026 revenue guidance of US$150--200 million, it shows the scale of capital flowing into public space names.
BlackSky Technology (NYSE: BKSY) anchors the defense-intelligence angle, providing real-time satellite imagery and analytics to government and intelligence customers, it recently won a multi-year, sole-source US$99 million U.S. government contract, underscoring the national-security spending FJET also targets. And Boeing (NYSE: BA) anchors the large-cap end as a diversified aerospace-and-defense incumbent with deep space and flight-test heritage, offering the steadier, established route into the same broad theme. Together they illustrate a sector being re-rated by defense priorities and commercial-space momentum, the current Starfighters is trying to ride with a genuinely differentiated asset.
The Bottom Line
An advisory-board appointment is not a contract or a revenue event, and Starfighters remains an early-stage company executing an ambitious plan. But credibility compounds: when a former NASA Deputy Administrator who has personally flown your aircraft signs on to guide your safety and operations strategy, it sends a signal to the government and defense customers that matter most. The next markers to watch are how the advisory board fills out, progress on STARLAUNCH, and any movement from flight-test capability toward funded missions.
SIGNAL OVER NOISE
Signal over noise. Space, defense, and hypersonic-testing headlines move fast, and the crowd often moves first. Eagle Eye is a real-time investor signal-intelligence platform that surfaces sentiment shifts, news flow, and trending tickers as they happen, so you see the move forming instead of reading about it later. See it at eagle-eye.dev.
CONTACT
USA News Group
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SOURCES
-- Starfighters Space, Inc., "Starfighters Space (NYSE: FJET) Forms
Strategic Advisory Board and Appoints Former NASA Deputy Administrator
Fred Gregory as Inaugural Member," June 2026.
-- Karman Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KRMN), full-year 2025 results and 2026
guidance, 2026.
-- AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTS), Q1 2026 results and business update,
May 11, 2026.
-- BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY), 2025 results and U.S. government
IDIQ award disclosures, 2026.
-- The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA), corporate and defense/space program
disclosures, 2026.
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