Marcia S. Smith

Ms. Marcia S. Smith is the founder and editor of SpacePolicyOnline.com and president of the Space and Technology Policy Group, LLC. Ms. Smith has more than four decades of experience in space policy. Before starting her own company and website in 2009, she was Director of the Space Studies Board (2006-2009) and additionally Director of the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (2007-2009) at The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Previously, Ms. Smith was a specialist in U.S. and foreign military and civilian space activities and other science and technology policy issues at the Congressional Research Service (1975-2006), which provides objective, non-partisan research and analysis exclusively for the Members and committees of the U.S. Congress. During a leave of absence from 1985-1986, she served as Executive Director of the U.S. National Commission on Space, created by Congress and its members appointed by President Reagan to develop long term goals for the civilian space program. Before joining CRS (1973-1975), she worked in the Washington Office of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), then headquartered in New York.

Ms. Smith is a Fellow of AIAA and of the American Astronautical Society (AAS) and has served as an officer or committee member for both many times. She was a founder and President (1987) of Women in Aerospace and was awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award (2003). She is a member and former Vice President of the International Institute of Space Law and was awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award (2015). Among her many other professional activities, she is the North American editor of the journal Space Policy and on the Board of Editors of the journal New Space.