Michael Whalen

Michael Whalen leads the Maryland-based team in delivering flight proven separation systems and deployment mechanisms. He led Planetary Systems Corporation (PSC) for 15 years before it was acquired by Rocket Lab in 2021. Mr. Whalen took PSC from a 5-person company to a leader in on-orbit deployment solutions for most of the world's launch vehicles with more than 200 separations on-orbit and a 100% success rate.

Mr. Whalen has more than 28 years of national security and aerospace experience in engineering and management. Prior to PSC, he was a program manger with Intel Corporation responsible for server-based encryption and decryption hardware development.

Mr. Whalen previously served as a US Naval Aviator accruing more than 500 combat flight-hours and holds a BS in Materials Engineering from Drexel University.