Astronomer is a business software company, not a consumer astronomy brand: it sells data-orchestration tools built around the open-source project Apache Airflow. Its cofounder Pete DeJoy was interim CEO when he spoke to WIRED in August 2025 about the viral Coldplay concert clip involving former CEO Andy Byron and chief people officer Kristin Cabot. DeJoy said the incident was serious for the company and its employees—not a welcome publicity stunt.
What happened at the Coldplay concert?
On July 16, 2025, a stadium camera at a Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough showed Astronomer CEO Andy Byron embracing the company’s chief people officer, Kristin Cabot. Their reaction when they appeared on the big screen became a viral clip. Chris Martin joked from the stage that they were “either having an affair, or they’re just very shy.” That was a joke about the moment, not evidence establishing the nature of their private relationship. WIRED’s interview with DeJoy and Associated Press reporting identify the people and describe the aftermath.
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What happened to Astronomer’s leaders?
Astronomer confirmed Byron and Cabot’s identities to the Associated Press. The company said Byron was placed on leave while the board began a formal investigation. Byron resigned, and the board named cofounder and chief product officer Pete DeJoy interim CEO while it searched for a successor. AP later reported that Cabot had resigned. These employment actions do not, by themselves, establish a finding about the incident or the executives’ private lives.
DeJoy told WIRED that Astronomer learned of the incident when the rest of the world did, and that his last conversation with Byron had been before the concert. In the interview, he addressed the attention without calling it a business win: “This was a very serious event for us and our employees, and one that we certainly didn’t take lightly.” He was interim CEO at the time of that interview; the title “new CEO” should not be read as confirmation that he had been appointed permanently.
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What does Astronomer actually do?
Astronomer sells software for coordinating data workflows: the linked steps that move and process data across systems. DeJoy said the company was founded in Cincinnati in 2017. It first pursued data tracking, then built a commercial business around Apache Airflow, an open-source project for orchestrating workflows. Astronomer’s product, Astro, is built on Airflow. In short, Airflow is the open-source project; Astro is Astronomer’s commercial offering for businesses using it.
The distinction matters because the viral clip was about a company whose core business is enterprise data infrastructure. WIRED described Astronomer as supporting the software and serving business customers. Its official press archive lists company announcements, including the release of Airflow 3 in 2025 and a $93 million Series D funding announcement. Those are company-reported developments, not independent assessments of product quality or market position.
How big was the company before the viral attention?
WIRED reported that Astronomer had more than 800 customers and 300 workers at the time of its August 2025 interview. Those are interview-era figures, not verified current counts. The scale helps explain why a leadership crisis mattered beyond a viral moment: the company had a workforce and enterprise customers relying on its software and operations.
DeJoy also cited the Texas Rangers’ analytics work with Astronomer and said it contributed to the team’s 2023 World Series win. That is his account of the company’s role, not independent proof that its work caused the championship.
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Why did DeJoy discuss AI and data?
In the interview, DeJoy connected Astronomer’s data-orchestration business to the growth of AI. His point was that AI systems depend on useful, organized data; he put it this way: “Customers need access to really strong, structured data.” That is his business framing, rather than a technical finding established by the interview. Astronomer’s role is to help organizations coordinate data workflows, not to make the viral clip itself a story about AI.
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