October 1, 2024 – New York, NY 

Planetary Systems AI (PSAI), a planetary support company providing cyber-first artificial intelligence and machine-learning solutions for space and satellite operations, announced today that Eileen M. Vidrine joins the company’s Advisory Board. 

Ms. Vidrine is a national security executive, U.S. Army veteran and the former Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence officer for the Department of the Air Force (Ret) at the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. She possesses more than 35 years of experience leading transformative change initiatives in defense, intelligence, air and space. 

CEO & Chief Space Officer Cindy Chin said, “It is an incredible honor to welcome Eileen to PSAI’s Board Advisors. Her groundbreaking leadership in public and military service combined with her extensive wealth of knowledge in the data and artificial intelligence domains between the commercial space and defense industries makes her a powerhouse in disrupting outdated processes and DoD space value chain improving our ability to provide world-class enhanced and dual-use capabilities at enterprise data management levels that is necessary to bring the global space industry into its next phase of growth with the United States leading the charge with its allied partners.

She is an exceptional leader and visionary which aligns with the PSAI standards of excellence. We are extremely grateful that she has come on board and continues her professional leadership and service beyond her military career.”

A visionary leader within the Federal Senior Executive Service, Ms. Vidrine was handpicked to serve as the Senior Strategic Advisor for Data to the Federal Chief Information Officer, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President, Washington, D.C., where she spearheaded data and emerging technology strategies.

In her leadership roles, Ms. Vidrine has consistently driven innovation by establishing new programs that enhance workforce capabilities and promote best practices in data management and AI. Known for her ability to disrupt outdated processes, she has built high-performance teams and cultivated collaborative work cultures that value individual skills, inspire confidence and foster professional growth. She continues to mentor and develop the next generation of data and AI leaders. 

She was recently named to the Blackhat AI Security Council and is an advisory board member to the Mark Cuban AI Foundation. Ms. Vidrine’s contributions to the AI and data community have been recognized with prestigious awards, including the AIM AI 100 Visionary Leader, CDO Magazine Executive of the Year 2023 and the DataIQ 2024 Life,me Achievement Award. Ms. Vidrine received her M.S. in Systems Management from the University of Southern California and attended executive leadership programs at the Harvard Kennedy School. 

About Planetary Systems AI (www.planetarysystems.ai): Planetary Systems AI (PSAI) is a planetary support company addressing the challenges of building software applications with space and satellite data building artificial intelligence and machine learning tools and solutions, the foundations for neural networks in the space industry, digital twin technology, data models, digital and reliability engineering to empower planetary interoperability and computationally accessible data for space and satellite operations decision support.

 

Planetary Systems AI Press Contact:
Mack Reed
Head of Product
E: pr@planetarysystems.ai

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New York, NY, August 5, 2024Planetary Systems AI (PSAI) announced that Ian Douglas joins the company as of August 1, 2024.

We are pleased to announce that Ian Douglas, former CTO of Genea, has joined the Planetary Systems AI team as Senior Architect and a core member of PSAI’s Engineering and Dev team.

“With Ian’s comprehensive experience and proven capability in leading and scaling up the Production and Operations for high tech products, Ian will steer Planetary Systems AI technical architecture and focus on establishing the company’s scalable AI and groundbreaking machine learning solutions,” says CEO & Chief Space Officer Cindy Chin. “He is a respected leader in delivery and operational excellence; ensuring effective and controlled management of all program deliverables. Ian’s experience building out ioT and enterprise systems at scale for Fortune 100 companies is highly valuable and needed in the commercial space and satellite industry. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have Ian come on board as our lead architect. Congratulations Ian in the new role and welcome!”

A launched rocket soars above billowing white clouds of exhaust, white-hot flame shooting from its stern, against a partly cloudy blue sky.
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket lifts off on a cargo supply mission to the International Space Station. Photo by Cindy Chin, Planetary Systems AI.
A satellite studded with sensors, instruments, and antennae floats in the black void of orbit above the curved hazy blue surface of the earth, with large, wing-like solar panels extending from either side of its cylindrical body.
Blue Origin’s Blue Ring project, announced in late 2023, is developing vehicles like these to manage orbital logistics and the gathering, processing, and transmission of data.
Two women facing away from the camera in a large mission-control room. Before them are a man in glasses and six video screens showing camera views of a rocket on a launch pad, weather maps, and other mission data.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 ground crew preparing for launch earlier this year at Space Launch Complex 40, at Kennedy Space Center. Photo by Cindy Chin, Planetary Systems AI.

The U.S. Space Force is partnering with private industry this spring to develop the “Digital Spaceport of the Future.” 

The intention implied in this ambitious program’s title speaks to the enormity of the problem that it’s meant to solve: 

The operating system for U.S. spaceports – a patchwork infrastructure of labor-intensive operations and logistics cobbled together over 60+ years from stovepiped government-agency software running on aging hardware – desperately needs modernization. 

Why? The launch business is booming and, with it, the core data practices of the space economy. 

That’s where AI comes in:

The U.S. Space Force expects launch cadence at the nation’s spaceports to speed up by 30% year-over-year; the Eastern Range alone will host more than 116 launches in 2024

SpaceX alone launched 1,871 Starlink satellites in 2023, and 564 so far in 2024. Amazon plans more than 77 launches with partner launch providers for its own Project Kuiper, and Blue Origin is developing Blue Ring, a multi-use spacecraft that will move data, cargo, and other spacecraft in and between earth and lunar orbits.

So, as the space industry surges into a state of massive, vibrant complexity and growth, stakeholders across all domains find themselves working on a universal problem: making data work better and faster.

Acquiring data is easy: Whatever the instrumentation – satellite sensors, telemetry systems, computational analysis – any space company’s access to their own data is no more complicated than the tools and staffing they use. The hard part is normalizing and operationalizing that data with context and insights – the kind that support budgeting, strategy, development, and real-time operations. 

Data practitioners still struggle with normalizing and interpreting data correctly to support their planning and decision-making in the increasingly complex and data-rich intraorbital environment.

Artificial intelligence, carefully built and responsibly deployed, will streamline those efforts, and support that heavy lift. 

By empowering efficient R&D and ensuring safer and faster operations across complex technical domains, AI will serve as the radically-expanding space economy’s amplifier – and pressure valve.

In design work, AI can model potential equipment failures under myriad conditions, exposing risks before costly and dangerous live operations reveal them the hard way.

At launch, AI can identify anomalies and shut down unforeseen mission risks far faster than human monitors ever could.

And during spaceport data operations – whether via post-processing and analysis, active synthesis, or networked orbital computing – AI can reveal critical anomalies and valuable opportunities across completely heterogeneous datasets that might otherwise have been lost in hours of costly human labor.

Built fully interoperable, responsibly scalable, and thoroughly secure, AI will fuel the space economy’s already massive growth – and the evolution of Earth as a spacefaring world – for centuries to come. 

We are excited to be architecting that future, and that’s why we at Planetary Systems AI are partnering with agencies, private companies, and passionate, brilliant minds to accelerate their growth. 

We are obsessed about space data. Watch this space. Or reach out. We’re always glad to connect and learn from you.

Mack Reed is Head of Product at Planetary Systems AI. He can be reached via our Contact page.