Viral Coldplay CEO kiss cam: Here’s what Astronomer, Andy Byron’s tech company, does

Find out what Astronomer, the tech company at the centre of the Coldplay concert kiss cam controversy, actually does.

Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and his Head of HR, Kristin Cabot, have become an internet sensation after kiss cam footage of them during a recent Coldplay concert in Boston went viral. While you may have already read about the rather spicy details, which happens to be the allegation that the CEO is having an affair with his Head of HR, this article will focus on what Astronomer, the technology company at the centre of the story, actually does.

Andy Byron was caught with Astronomer's HR chief in a Coldplay kiss cam video (X and Linkedin)

By Shaurya Sharma

Shaurya Sharma is the Technology Editor at Hindustan Times Digital Streams, where he oversees technology coverage across digital and social platforms. With over eight years of experience across editorial, video production, and digital media, his work focuses on smartphones, AI, consumer gadgets, and shaping audience-first content strategies for modern tech consumers.

He began his career in 2018 as a fashion cinematographer before turning his lifelong passion for technology into a profession. From spending his childhood immersed in tech magazines, video games, and the latest gadgets to covering the global consumer tech industry today, technology has remained a constant throughout his journey.

Over the years, Shaurya has worked with some of India’s leading media organisations, including CNN-News18, Sportskeeda, and Guiding Tech, where he led video initiatives that combined strong editorial storytelling with engaging visual and social-first execution.

A graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication from Manipal University, Shaurya has reviewed hundreds of products across categories including smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles, cameras, and wearables. Beyond work, he is passionate about animal welfare, environmental causes, and automobiles, particularly turbo-petrol cars

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For context, Byron has been the CEO of Astronomer since July 2023, holding the position for two years. He is married to Megan Kerrigan; they are both 50 years old and have two children together. And as for Kristin Cabot, she has been the Chief People Officer of the company since November 2024.

So, What Does Andy Byron’s Astronomer Do?

Astronomer is a company that helps data teams to come up with software, analytics and artificial intelligence. It's parent compnay is Astro, which is known for its data orchestration, with Apache Airflow, an open-source platform for workflow automation and data pipelines.

The company states that Apache Airflow is the “world's most widely used open-source tool for orchestrating data pipelines,”with 324 million annual downloads, over 57,000 members in its Slack community, and over 3,200 contributors.

Now, Astronomer has been the primary team powering Apache Airflow since 2018, claiming to drive 100% of its releases.

What Is Data Orchestration?

Data orchestration is essentially the “coordination and management of multiple computer systems, applications and/or services, stringing together multiple tasks in order to execute a larger workflow or process,” according to Databricks. And then, these processes can consist of multiple automated tasks that involve various other systems.

The ultimate goal of data orchestration is to streamline and optimise the execution of frequent and repeatable processes. This, in turn, helps data teams manage complex tasks and workflows more effectively.

A primary use case of data orchestration happens to be simplifying data and machine learning. And the key logic behind this process is about the fact that whenever a process is actually repeatable and if its tasks can be automated, data orchestration can be brought into play to actually save time, boost efficiency, and of course, reduce redundancies.