Jeff Thornburg
Jeff Thornburg is CEO and co-founder of Portal Space Systems and serves as a mentor at Creative Destruction Lab and advisor at Stratolaunch. He previously held engineering leadership roles at Aerojet, Agility Robotics, Air Force Research Laboratory, Amazon Kuiper, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, and has expertise in pioneering technology for high-speed mobility across trans-orbital regimes.
Uncommon Thinkers 2025: Solar spacecraft, sci-fi biology, destroying PFAS, beyond AI chatbots, and better social media
On this special episode of the GeekWire Podcast, recorded backstage at the GeekWire Gala at the Showbox Sodo, we sit down with five of the inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs selected as the Seattle region's 2025 Uncommon Thinkers, in partnership with Greater Seattle Partners. Jeff Thornburg spent years building rocket engines for Elon Musk at SpaceX and Paul Allen at Stratolaunch. Now, as CEO of Portal Space Systems, he's moved past chemical rockets to revive a concept NASA studied decades ago but never pursued — a spacecraft powered by focused sunlight. He calls it a "steam engine for space." Read the…
Organizations
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Creative Destruction Lab Mentor/Associate - Space Stream 2021–present · current
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Portal Space Systems CEO & Co-founder 2021–present · current
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Stratolaunch Advisor 2021–present, Vice President of Propulsion Engineering 2017–2019 · current
Education
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U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology M.S., Aeronautical Engineering · 1998–2000
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Missouri University of Science and Technology B.S., Aerospace Engineering · 1991–1995
