Dr. GP Sandhoo
Director
Space Development Agency (SDA)
Dr. Gurpartap “GP” Sandhoo is the Director of the Space Development Agency, where he leads the strategic direction and program execution for acqusition, delivery, and operation of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Dr. Sandhoo is also the Space Force Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Missile Warning and Tracking. Before his selection as the Director, Dr. Sandhoo served as the Acting Director and Deputy Director, where he supported the daily management of the organization and the implmentation of the PWSA, delivering essential space-based capabilities to the joint warfighter in support of terrestrial missions. Dr. Sandhoo has held senior leadership positions across the national security, defense, intelligence, academic, and civil space communities. His service includes serving as Deputy Director at IARPA, where he helped guide advanced research efforts in support of the U.S. intelligence community, and as the Heinlein Chair in Astronautics at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he helped educate and mentor future naval officers. He also headed the Spacecraft Engineering Division at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and served as Acting Director of the Naval Center for Space Technology, overseeing research, development, and deployment of advanced space systems for national security missions. Earlier in his career, he served as a flight controller at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and as a research and development engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Prior to joining SDA, Dr. Sandhoo held senior roles in both traditional and startup commercial space organizations, as Vice President and Chief Architect at Quantum Space and as Director for Emerging Technologies at Northrop Grumman. A veteran of more than 36 years of military service in the active and reserve components of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, Dr. Sandhoo last served as the National Reconnaissance Office liaison to the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine and as a senior scientist at the Defense Innovation Unit. Dr. Sandhoo holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, an M.S. in Space Systems, a D.Sc. in Aeronautics, Astronautics, and Propulsion from George Washington University, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College. He is a 2016-2017 Fellow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Seminar XXI.
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