Orbital transfer vehicles are the infrastructure layer between launch and final orbit. Building them is an engineering problem. Selling them to the Pentagon is a different kind of problem entirely.
John Rood is the Chairman, President, and CEO of Momentus (NASDAQ: MNTS), a commercial space company that builds orbital transfer vehicles and offers hosted payload, satellite bus, and in-space transportation services. Before joining Momentus in August 2021, Rood served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from January 2018 to February 2020, the Pentagon’s principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense on national security policy. His career spans more than three decades across government and industry: senior roles at Lockheed Martin, where he led international business growth across more than 70 countries as Senior Vice President; executive positions at Raytheon; and posts at the State Department, the White House National Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency. He also served as Acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
At Momentus, Rood has led the company through its SPAC-to-NASDAQ transition, the production and launch of its first Vigoride orbital service vehicles, and the placement of eight customer satellites in orbit. In March 2026, Momentus launched Vigoride-7 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-16, carrying 10 demonstration payloads. Among them is the Low-Cost Multispectral RPO Sensor suite, a $1.86 million SpaceWERX-funded demonstration designed to improve spacecraft situational awareness through multispectral tracking of nearby objects. NASA is supporting the mission through a Space Act Agreement, providing a free-flying CubeSat imager that will assess Vigoride-7’s health and test WiFi-based inter-satellite data links. Separately, NASA awarded Momentus a $5.1 million contract to demonstrate microgravity protein crystallization and $2.5 million for an on-orbit rotating detonation rocket engine test. SatNews covered the Vigoride-7 multispectral sensor mission in February 2026.
The in-space services market has expanded rapidly, with multiple companies developing orbital transfer vehicles across the United States and Europe. Momentus has focused on building a dual-use service portfolio spanning commercial hosted payloads and government technology demonstrations. SatNews reported on the Momentus-Solstar strategic partnership for on-demand space communications in March 2025, extending the company’s offerings beyond transportation.
At SmallSat Europe, Rood speaks on the conference program.
The Vigoride vehicles are flying. The question for Momentus is whether the service model scales.
