Friday, March 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Retired Gen. Jack Gregory, Kistler's new director of Nevada operations, commanded 12,000 people at Nellis Air Force Base from 1980 to 1983. He went on to become a four-star general heading the Air Force's Pacific operations before his retirement in 1989. He has since worked as a consultant to companies doing business in the Pacific Rim.
Gregory was introduced Thursday to the board of directors of the Nevada Test Site Development Corp., a federally funded nonprofit group whose goal is to encourage businesses to use the Nevada Test Site's facilities.
Employment at the former nuclear weapons testing range, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, has dwindled from 11,000 in 1988 to fewer than 3,300 today because of a 1992 moratorium on nuclear testing.
Kistler Aerospace's plans, if successful, would represent a major boon in efforts to bring jobs back to the test site, development corporation officials have said. The Kirkland, Wash., company says it has developed the world's first fully re-usable space vehicle and plans to use it to put communications satellites into orbit.
Gregory, who recalled working closely with community leaders as Nellis commander, paid tribute to the Las Vegas area's leadership and also to his fellow executives at Kistler.
"As I give leadership conferences around the nation, I use this community as an example of people coming together ... how folks can lock arms and make things happen," Gregory said.
Kistler Executive Vice President Dan Brandenstein, a former astronaut who flew four space shuttle missions, told the development corporation board that Kistler hopes to begin construction of its launch facility within the next two months.
Kistler recently selected a site in the northwestern quadrant of the 1,350-square-mile test site. The area, known as Paiute Mesa, is situated to allow Kistler to launch its spacecraft on a path that doesn't jeopardize valuable buildings on test site land, Brandenstein said.
With financing and approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, Kistler hopes to make its first launch in 1999.
archive
