FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jamie Moran, Vice President, Defense Strategic Space, and Executive Director, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, The Aerospace Corporation.
June 27, 2025 – Reston, Va. – AIAA is pleased to announce the 2025 AIAA David W. Thompson Lectureship in Space Commerce is awarded to Jamie M. Morin, Vice President, Defense Strategic Space, and Executive Director, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, The Aerospace Corporation. The lecture, “Accelerating Space and Defense Innovation Through Savvy Policy,” will be presented Tuesday, 22 July, 11:45 a.m. PT, during 2025 ASCEND, 22–24 July, Las Vegas. The lecture will be delivered in person, as well as recorded and available on demand at aiaa.org.
Registration for 2025 ASCEND is open now. Journalists can request a Press Pass online.
The ability of the United States to advance its leadership in the space sector depends on harnessing the combined energy of both privately-financed, commercially-oriented firms as well as traditional government-led programs. However, there are significant obstacles to doing this at scale.
In today’s space domain, defining a company as commercial is ambiguous when that entity also serves as a government contractor. Commercial products and services benefit both commercial and government sectors, and income from government partnerships enables commercial players to contribute to important issues like climate change and sustainable agriculture. The democratization of space and unique dynamics of the space environment create risks for commercial actors. Indiscriminate threats to national security systems also pose risks to commercial systems. These factors amplify the need for greater collaboration between commercial actors and the U.S. government. When expanding our presence in space, leveraging the commercial sector is advantageous for addressing rapidly developing challenges.
Building on the research of the Center for Space Policy and Strategy, Morin’s lecture will propose a framework for policy and execution to create this powerful hybrid, which is a timely topic given the rise of commercial space and the emphasis on bringing non-traditional contractors into the defense and space ecosystem.
Morin is vice president of Defense Strategic Space at The Aerospace Corporation. He leads technical support to the senior-most levels of the Department of Defense and Department of the Air Force, including the U.S. Space Force headquarters, as well as to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and terrestrial combatant commands. Morin is an AIAA Associate Fellow.
Morin also is executive director of Aerospace’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy, which provides objective analysis to ensure well-informed, technically defensible, and forward-looking space policy across the civil, military, intelligence, and commercial space sectors. He orchestrates the Center’s extensive series of publications, events, and multimedia products to shape the future of the U.S. space enterprise.
Prior to joining Aerospace, Morin served as director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) for the Department of Defense. Earlier, he served for five years as the assistant secretary of the Air Force (Financial Management and Comptroller), and for a year as acting under secretary of the Air Force.
This lectureship recognizes a prominent industry leader or senior management team who has created or grown a space-related business and generated substantial economic benefits and market value. It was endowed by Orbital ATK to commemorate the long and distinguished career of commercial space pioneer, David W. Thompson.
Media Contact: Rebecca Gray, RebeccaG@AIAA.org, 804-397-5270 cell
About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter.
About The Aerospace Corporation
The Aerospace Corporation is a leading architect for the nation’s space programs, advancing capabilities that outpace threats to the country’s national security while nurturing innovative technologies to further a new era of space commercialization and exploration. Aerospace’s national workforce of more than 4,600 employees provides objective technical expertise and thought leadership to solve the hardest problems in space and assure mission success for space systems and space vehicles. For more information, visit www.aerospace.org. Follow us on LinkedIn and X: @AerospaceCorp.
