Bradley Cheetham named finalist for Mountain West Entrepreneur of the Year

Bradley Cheetham, CEO & President of Advanced Space named a finalist by EY US for the Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2026 Mountain West. Bradley receives this honor as the company celebrates its 15th anniversary and leads key missions supporting NASA’s return to the Moon.

WESTMINSTER, CO, 27 April 2026 – An independent panel of judges selected Bradley Cheetham among 40 finalists based on his entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, company growth and lasting impact in building long-term value.

Now in its 41st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program celebrates the bold leaders who disrupt markets through the world’s most ground-breaking companies, revolutionizing industries and uplifting communities. The program honors entrepreneurs whose innovations drive economic growth and help shape the future of business.

“I’m honored by this recognition from EY, which truly reflects the dedication and passion of the entire Advanced Space team,” said Bradley Cheetham, CEO & President of Advanced Space. “From the beginning, our mission has been to enable the sustainable exploration, development, and settlement of space, and our growth underscores the demand for the capabilities we’re delivering to NASA, the U.S. government, and commercial partners. I’m incredibly grateful to our customers, teammates, and partners who trust us with critical missions and share our vision for a thriving future in space.”

Bradley Cheetham co-founded Advanced Space in 2011, focusing on building foundational technologies, and laying the groundwork for what would be required to operate in space with increased speed and scale. The company took off in 2019 when it was awarded a contract from NASA in the early days of the Artemis program, to build and operate a small spacecraft called CAPSTONE™ to orbit the Moon. This mission serves as a test bed for future cislunar operations with its proprietary, internally developed software, which is performing navigation, communication and autonomous operations at the Moon today. Launched in 2022, CAPSTONE™ continues to develop, perform and test navigation and communications technologies that this country needs to lead in cislunar space.

Under Bradley Cheetham’s leadership, Advanced Space has achieved several key milestones, including developing and serving as owner and operator of the CAPSTONE™ mission for NASA and being the Prime contractor for the Oracle – Prime mission for the Air Force Research Lab. The company is entrusted by its customers to demonstrate pioneering capabilities in cislunar, Martian and deep space operations. Advanced Space serves commercial, civil, and national security space customers and provides mission design, flight dynamics, autonomy, and related software and services that enable complex space missions.

In addition to Brad’s leadership with Advanced Space, he is co-founder of Aerospace Colorado, a non profit organization dedicated to promoting the interests of the aerospace and defense industry in Colorado, advocating for the industry locally and nationally to support the creation and growth of companies in Colorado.

He also co-founded and is the current Chair of the Future Space Leaders Foundation, a dedicated non-profit organization committed to developing the next generation of space professionals through its Fellowship program.

Entrepreneur Of The Year honors business leaders for their ingenuity, courage and entrepreneurial spirit. The program celebrates original founders who bootstrapped their business from inception or who raised outside capital to grow their company, transformational CEOs who infused innovation into an existing organization to catapult its trajectory, and multigenerational family business leaders who reimagined a legacy business model to strengthen it for the future.

This year’s Mountain West finalists represent Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington across all industries, including technology, consumer products, manufacturing, health and more.

Regional award winners will be announced on Thursday, June 18, 2026 during a special celebration in Colorado Springs, Colorado and will become lifetime members of an esteemed community of Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni from around the world. The winners will then be considered by the national judges for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards, which will be presented in November at the annual Strategic Growth Forum®, where high-growth CEOs, Fortune 1000 executives and investors converge to shape the future of business.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards include presenting sponsors PNC Bank, Cresa, LLC, Marsh USA, SAP, and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In the Mountain West region, sponsors also include regional Gold sponsors, Big Picture, Perkins Coie, Strong & Hanni Law Firm and Truss and regional Silver sponsors, ADP, Pierpont Communications, and Silicon Slopes.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year®

Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year® has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 80 countries and territories globally.

The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum® in November where national finalists and award winners are announced. The national overall winner represents the US at the World Entrepreneur Of The Year® competition. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.