WarpWare COO Aims to Give Spacecraft Teams a Software Head Start
Mickey Matthew is cofounder and COO of WarpWare, a company building flight-ready software for spacecraft teams. He grew up in Houston around astronaut families and later worked at Sierra Space, where he learned that new vehicles often could not reuse existing flight code. WarpWare offers tools for digital twin testing, flight software, and mission operations, and its partners include Orbit Fab, Starlab, LEAP, and Argotec; it was also chosen for a NATO DIANA space operations cohort.
Matthew moved to Houston at nine and, while in middle school, saw space travel as ordinary; seven friends had parents who were astronauts. He later earned an aerospace engineering degree from Texas A&M, interned at NASA Goddard, and joined Sierra Space when it had roughly 300 staff. There he moved through astronaut-facing testing, business development, and deputy chief engineer roles as the company expanded to about 3,000 people.
In 2023 he and Alex Reynolds, formerly Sierra's flight software integration lead, started WarpWare. Its offerings cover digital-twin validation, spacecraft flight code, and mission operations support. Customers or partners include Orbit Fab, Starlab, LEAP, and Argotec. NATO DIANA selected it for a resilient space operations cohort, one of 15 firms and one of two US-based participants.
WarpWare's approach could lower barriers for small spacecraft teams by reducing the need to build core software repeatedly. That may let startups, research groups, and public space programs test and operate vehicles with fewer resources, potentially speeding innovation and improving mission reliability. Spacecraft engineers and operators might shift effort from rebuilding basics to mission-specific work. Broader access could also raise questions about software safety, standards, and oversight, though the actual effects will depend on adoption and performance.