Capella expands staff focused on US government sales and service | Tech Reddy

SAN FRANCISCO – Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite operator Capella Space has named Amy Hopkins, former Boeing Phantom Works Director of Strategy, as its first vice president and general manager of US Government Services.

“Amy has first-hand experience as a tactician and policymaker,” Payam Banazadeh, CEO and founder of Capella, said in a statement. “She carries deep understanding of customer challenges and how we can help them achieve greater intelligence and operational, planning and policy value.”

Over the past two decades, Hopkins has worked for Northrop Grumman, the US Senate Intelligence Committee, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Pacific Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Hopkins began working with SAR earlier in her career when she was deployed to Camp Bondsteel, the main US Army base under the NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo. As a Defense Intelligence Agency civilian intelligence officer supporting the 1st Armored Division, Hopkins saw “the need for SAR at all times, day and night to support military operations.”

She did not become a SAR evangelist, however, until she worked in Hawaii for the US Pacific Command.

“The challenge to the nation’s security posed by major global players puts an absolute premium on coverage at all times, day and night,” Hopkins said by email. “The demand for this decision-level data has only increased since my time spent supporting military operations, and I see no end to that demand in sight.”

Capella, in San Francisco, collects images and SAR data with a constellation of five small satellites in low Earth orbit. The company has won contracts from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency, the US Air Force, the US Navy and the US Space Force. the United States.

Capella also named retired Air Force officer Stosh Kowalski to be the company’s director of government programs. Kowalski’s LinkedIn profile notes that he “served on launch teams for more than 40 rockets for the USAF and the National Reconnaissance Office” in addition to helping establish the initial operational capability for a $470 satellite processing facility millions.