Space Industry Strategy & Advisory
Four decades at the frontier of space — from NASA Headquarters to New Space. Helping organizations align with a rapidly expanding market and win the business that defines the future.
LATEST Mike's Substack — “SpaceX Is Skipping the Catch on Purpose” →What We Do
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Identifying where the market is heading before your competitors do. Positioning organizations to enter new sectors and build durable competitive advantage in government and commercial space.
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End-to-end BD support — from opportunity identification and teaming strategy to proposal development. Built on a 45-year network across NASA, DoD, Space Force, and the commercial sector.
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Translating R&D into recurring, scalable commercial product lines. Experience turning advanced technology into programs of record — from concept through CDR and beyond.
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Experienced program executive support for complex, high-stakes missions. Cost, schedule, and technical performance accountability for programs that cannot afford to fail.
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Senior counsel for boards, CEOs, and leadership teams navigating the intersection of government procurement, space policy, and commercial market dynamics.
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Adjunct faculty at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Conference speaker. Active contributor to AIAA, IEEE, and the Space SMART think tank.
About Mike Kaplan
Mike Kaplan brings more than four decades of leadership across the full spectrum of the space industry — from NASA Headquarters and the Naval Research Laboratory to Boeing, Ball Aerospace, MDA, Raytheon, LeoStella, and D-Orbit.
He has captured more than $15 billion in contracts at a win rate exceeding 70%, including first prime wins for three major primes. As the first Program Executive for the James Webb Space Telescope, he helped create one of humanity's most consequential scientific instruments.
Today, Mike applies that depth of experience to help Legacy and New Space organizations navigate a rapidly transforming market — winning new business and turning technology into programs of record.
He holds a BSE in Aerospace & Mechanical Sciences from Princeton University and an MS in Electrophysics from The George Washington University.
NASA Headquarters — Program Executive, including James Webb Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and SOFIA
Legacy Primes — Senior leadership at Boeing, Ball Aerospace, Raytheon, and MDA
New Space — VP Business Development at LeoStella; current engagement with D-Orbit USA on national security space programs
Princeton BSE, Aerospace & Mechanical Sciences; GWU MS, Electrophysics
AIAA Associate Fellow · IEEE Senior Member · Space SMART Think Tank · Embry-Riddle Adjunct Faculty
Find me here
Signature Missions
First Program Executive · NASA Headquarters
Served as the founding Program Executive for humanity's most powerful space telescope — leading the program from formative stages through organizational establishment and early development.
Program Executive · NASA Headquarters
Key leadership role in NASA's infrared observatory — part of the Great Observatories program — through its mission formulation and development phase.
Program Executive · NASA Headquarters
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy — led the airborne astronomy program through critical development milestones as program executive at NASA HQ.
BD & Strategy · New Space
Deep focus on proliferated low Earth orbit constellations for Earth observation, ISR, communications, and space domain awareness — and on the emerging in-space logistics layer underneath: orbital transfer, last-mile deployment, life extension, and de-orbit as a service. Spanning LeoStella and D-Orbit USA.
In the Public Record
Selected podcast appearances, interviews, and published articles — a partial record of conversations about the past, present, and future of the space industry.
Starship V3 flies Tuesday. Strip away the spectacle of the missing tower catch and the actual story is one Raptor relighting in orbit — the gate that decides whether propellant transfer, Artemis, and the next two years of the program are real.
RECENT ESSAYS
View all essays on Substack →Crisis, innovation, and the commercial revolution in space — from the Hubble shock through JWST and into the New Space era.
Listen →A look at the booming smallsat industry and what it takes to manufacture spacecraft at the pace the market now demands — roughly a ton a day.
Listen →A wide-ranging conversation on the origin story of JWST, the human reach for the cosmos, and what major discoveries mean beyond the technical.
Listen →Smallsat manufacturers share what will shape the design and capabilities of the next generation — smarter, more autonomous, and far more powerful.
Read →A decade-long view of growth in smallsat capability, market structure, and the innovation pressure where commercial and government interests now overlap.
Read →On space robots, baby galaxies, and what it took to shepherd JWST through its earliest planning years — with thoughts on what comes next.
Read →More appearances at linkedin.com/in/mike-kaplan-boulder.
Client & Colleague Perspectives
Hugely enthusiastic and experienced space systems visionary. Understands the unique politics as well as the technologies around space exploration and science missions.
Senior Colleague · NASA
Mike did a great job of finding the intersection of company vision & capabilities and customer needs — quickly identifying alignment or lack thereof, and devising an approach to close the gap.
VP Engineering · LeoStella
Michael has a deep knowledge of the space industry, and in particular of the NASA procurement process. A great big picture thinker, balanced with pragmatism of working within unmovable constraints.
Senior Leader · MDA
Start Here
Whether you're entering a new market, building a BD strategy, or need a seasoned program executive — let's talk.
mike@kaplanastronautics.com