Ex-CSO Saltzman to Lead Advisory Board at Voyager Technologies

In his first professional move since retiring from the Space Force at the end of August, former Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman will lead the board of advisors for Voyager Technologies, the firm announced Nov. 2.

Launched as a holding company in 2019 to acquire and run space-focused subsidiaries, Voyager aims has started to position itself to compete for programs that are Space Force priorities, including space-based missile interceptors, satellite communications, AI, and more.

Voyager’s biggest contracts to date have been with NASA. The firm is developing a commercial space station to go in low-Earth orbit called Starlab through its subsidiary Nanoracks and is providing lunar landers for the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program through its subsidiary Astrobotic Technology.

Now its defense business is starting to grow too. Last December, it won a $21 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to develop AI-enabled intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems. In May, Anduril Industries named Voyager a partner in its effort to develop space-based interceptors. In August, the company announced a contract with the Space Force to develop a datalink between satellites. And in October, the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office awarded Voyager a $22.4 million contract for “next-generation satellite deployment systems.”

Matt Magana, president of the company’s defense and national security business, told Air & Space Forces Magazine last year that it views the technologies that will be key to creating the Golden Dome missile defense system, such as propulsion and artificial intelligence, as similiarly high-interest for non-defense customers.

With Saltzman on its advisory panel, Voyager gains “strategic counsel for the company’s space and defense efforts,” the company said in a release. In nearly four years as CSO, Saltzman emphasized that space is now a warfighting domain, and that the Space Force needed to rapidly grow to be able to operate effectively even while under attack.

In a statement, Saltzman indicated he sees Voyager’s defense business continuing to grow.

“The national security space mission is expanding faster than industry can currently meet it,” Saltzman said. “Voyager has the technology, the agility, and the ambition to help close that gap, and I’m looking forward to helping the team turn that potential into capability for our services.”

It’s common for Pentagon leaders to join commercial firms in advisory and senior roles after retiring. Saltzman’s predecessor, Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond is on the board of satellite imagery company Planet Labs, for example, as well as space mobility firm Impulse Space, among others. Saltzman, like any former service chief, is limited from lobbying in the Pentagon on behalf of commercial entities for two years after leaving office, but is free to act in an advisory role on matters of strategic direction, technology develoopment or investment decisions.