Dr. David Whalen

Dr. Whalen has over 30 years experience as an engineering manager in the satellite communications business. He has worked for manufacturers (Loral, RCA/Lockheed) and operators (RCA/SES Americom, AsiaSat)-as well as for systems engineering organizations (BDM, Ford Aerospace). His original expertise was in flight dynamics (orbit and attitude control), but his experience evolved into mission management and executive management. His technical career peaked as Chief Engineer (General Manager Engineering) for Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company in Hong Kong.

Much of Dr. Whalen's career was spent in other countries-especially Japan, India, and Hong Kong. He is a fluent/native speaker of English and Spanish, with some basic capabilities in French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, and Chinese.

His initial experience as Supervisor Celestial Mechanics at Western Union in 1974-1975 caused him to wonder at the decisions of upper management. These decisions seemed to run counter to what was best from an engineering point of view. This began an interest in the politics and economics of engineering development that lead to an Executive MBA and a PhD in Public Policy (Science & Technology/Space Policy).

Dr. Whalen's current efforts revolve around the completion of his book on the COMSAT Corporation-the second volume of what he hopes will be a trilogy on the development of satellite communications. The first volume, Origins of Satellite Communications 1945-1965, covered the early interest in satellite communications and technical/political developments up through the launch of Early Bird in 1965. The COMSAT book covers "international satellite communications" from the origins of COMSAT and Intelsat in the early 1960s to the dissolution of COMSAT in 2001. The third volume will emphasize the development of television distribution and broadcasting via satellite.

He also contributes articles and presentations on satellite communications and other current topics of interest, including: export control, militarization of space, launch vehicles, and applications satellites. His chapter on the societal implications of applications satellites will appear in a NASA publication to be released in early 2008.

BA, Astronomy, Boston University
MS, Astronomy, University of Massachusetts
MBA, Executive Program, College of William & Mary
PhD, Public Policy, George Washington University

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