Philip Hover-Smoot

Philip Hover-Smoot serves as Spaceflight’s General Counsel, responsible for managing risk, governance and commercial issues throughout the business. An experienced aerospace and defense industry legal executive, Philip brings years of expertise advising new space and traditional defense firms in commercial and federal contracting, technology security and foreign disclosure, and the implementation and execution of compliance and ethics programs.

Prior to Spaceflight, Philip was most recently Deputy General Counsel and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Momentus Inc., an in-space services provider. Philip also held a series of roles at Raytheon Technologies, primarily in the Office of General Counsel at Raytheon Technologies’ Intelligence & Space business, where he held key advisory roles in compliance and contracting with a focus on remote sensing and electronic warfare systems. Earlier in his legal career, Philip specialized in the implementation of technology security and foreign disclosure controls and counseled both aerospace and technology organizations. Philip also serves pro bono as the General Counsel of the Moffett Field Museum at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Philip holds a JD/MBA from Drake University, where he focused primarily on international intellectual property and commercial law. Additionally, Philip completed postdoctoral work at Stanford’s Spogli Institute for International Studies, with an emphasis on national security and intelligence, and the University of London, where he studied global transportation law.