Derek Tournear, formerly assistant director for space at the Department of Defense, has been named acting director of the Space Development Agency, Air Force Magazine reported Tuesday. Tournear will manage the agency’s research and engineering framework to address potential DoD space architecture concerns under his new capacity.
Prior to DoD, Tournear served as the director of research development at Harris and was the deputy vice president and general manager for integrated geospatial systems and environmental intelligence at Exelis. Tournear’s appointment follows Fred Kennedy’s resignation from his role as SDA director on June 21.
SDA has unveiled plans to deploy a network of satellites and payloads in low Earth orbit to augment missile defense, communications and national security missions.
