Janna joined Astroscale U.S. in May 2024 as Senior Vice President of Policy and General Counsel to provide strategic policy and legal direction to support the company’s growth and compliance with evolving regulations for commercial and national security initiatives. She also serves as Secretary of the Astroscale U.S. Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Astroscale, she was a senior attorney and technology strategist with BAE Systems Inc., focused on legal and policy matters in defense, intelligence, and commercial space. She has unique, cross-sector expertise in advising programs and technology development for U.S. government and commercial initiatives, including satellite integration and launch, on-orbit communications and sensing, space and missile defense, microelectronics, and cybersecurity.

Janna began her career in private legal practice, where she served as counsel to U.S. and international clients in the aerospace and defense, commercial space, and telecommunications industries. She then worked for Facebook, where she helped frame industry partnerships to catalyze the delivery of space-based and high-altitude global connectivity solutions. From there, she facilitated innovation under U.S. government contracts at Northrop Grumman’s Missions Systems Sector before joining BAE Systems.

Janna is a registered patent attorney. She also is a member of the International Institute of Space Lawyers and serves on the AIA Space Council. Janna frequently speaks publicly about the rapidly evolving laws and policies affecting defense and commercial space. She is committed to workforce education and development in the space industry, and she is a strong advocate for new space professionals.

Dr. Tom Cwik is Chief Technologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In this role he provides strategic leadership for research in advanced technology and serves as the focal point for technology interactions with NASA, companies, universities and the external research community. He is responsible for guiding the infusion of new technology into the Laboratory mission portfolio.

Tom has been a co-founder of a star-up company, consults and is an Adjunct Professor at University of Washington. He was named a distinguished alum at the University of Illinois, is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA and a Fellow of the IEEE.

Simone D’Amico is Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AA), W.M. Keck Faculty Scholar in the School of Engineering, Associate Professor of Geophysics (by Courtesy), Science Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Chief Science Officer at EraDrive Inc. He is the Founding Director of the Stanford Space Rendezvous Laboratory, Founding Co-Director of the Center for AEroSpace Autonomy Research (CAESAR), and Director of the Undergraduate Program in Aerospace Engineering at Stanford. He has 20+ years of experience in research and development of autonomous spacecraft and distributed space systems. He developed and deployed the distributed Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) system of several formation-flying, rendezvous and proximity operations missions. Currently, he is the institutional PI of four autonomous satellite swarms funded by NASA (STARLING, STARI) and by NSF (VISORS, SWARM-EX). Dr. D’Amico is in the Advisory Board of four space start-ups focusing on distributed space systems for future applications in SAR remote sensing, orbital lifetime prolongation, and space-based solar power. He was the recipient of several awards, most recently the 2024 NASA Ames Honor Award for the Starling mission, Best Paper Awards at IAF (2022), IEEE (2021), AIAA (2021), AAS (2019) conferences, and the M. Barry Carlton Award by IEEE (2020). He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Politecnico di Milano (2003) and the Ph.D. degree from Delft University of Technology (2010).

Ward Hanson analyzes the economics and marketing of new technology. Other areas of interest include the role of competition, policy issues involving the evolving role of interactivity, optimal product line pricing, and the emergence of the commercial space industry. As a pioneer in studying the commercialization and impact of the Internet, he has published research articles, a leading text, and created online courses on Internet marketing. He has served as an expert witness in areas of patent validity, e-commerce, Internet advertising, and industry analysis. He has recently published a number of articles on the economics of new space and serves on the editorial board of the New Space journal.

Dr. Hanson has taught at Stanford since 1995, first at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, then at the Department of Economics and the Public Policy program as part of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). Previous faculty positions include Purdue University and the University of Chicago. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.

S. Sita Sonty (Sita) is a Partner and Managing Director in the AlixPartners AD&A Americas group. She served as a career Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department, CEO of a space company, Partner at BCG, and Executive at SpaceX and Raytheon.

Prior to AlixPartners, Sita served as the CEO of Space Tango. Before that, she was the global lead for Commercial Space at BCG, where she was also a BCG Federal Core member. Earlier in her career, Sita has also held roles in Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceX, Raytheon, and served in senior roles at the Department of State.

She graduated with distinction from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; studied at Jussieu in Paris (1998) and the Centre des Etudes Maghrebines en Tunisie (CEMAT) (2001); and graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in Political Science and Economics.

Her native tongue is Telugu; she also speaks Hindi, French, Arabic, Croatian, and Urdu. Sita serves as Executive Board Member for Women in Aerospace, The Johns Hopkins University President’s Alumni Council, and the Washington Leadership Program.