WASHINGTON \u2014 Commercial space station and spacecraft developer Vast has established a new division intended to support work in national security space.<\/p>\n
The company announced July 22 that it hired Melanie Stricklan to the new position of senior vice president of special programs. She is the co-founder and former chief executive of Slingshot Aerospace, a space domain awareness company, and previously served 21 years in the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\n
\u201cVast combines proven spaceflight expertise, advanced manufacturing and a mission-first mindset to support the United States\u2019 most critical national security missions in low Earth orbit and beyond,\u201d she said in a company statement.<\/p>\n
Stricklan will lead a new special programs division at Vast. The company said that division \u201cwill deliver space-based capabilities for the U.S. national security enterprise, including the defense and intelligence communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Max Haot, chief executive of Vast, said in the statement that Stricklan \u201cis joining Vast at a pivotal moment as we develop in-house, high-performance technologies with direct applications for the U.S. defense and intelligence communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company didn\u2019t elaborate on those technologies, but Vast announced in May plans to develop a line of high-power satellite buses<\/a>. Haot said at the time that the bus was a natural extension of the company\u2019s work on commercial space stations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going towards a world where low-cost but high-power satellites are really the future,\u201d he said then, citing interest in national security applications among other uses of such spacecraft.<\/p>\n