Corporate Officers

Catherine J. Steele is vice president of Space Operations, Requirements and Technology based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She is responsible for all Aerospace activities supporting U.S. Air Force Space Command Headquarters, the Space Innovation and Development Center, the Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, and United States Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. Before assuming her current position on May 3, 2008, she was general manager of National Space Systems Engineering where she was responsible for national space systems engineering and architectures for customers in the Department of Defense and within the intelligence community.

Prior to her promotion to general manager in July 2004, Steele was the principal director of Communications Systems and Information Engineering within the National Systems Group assigned to the Communications Directorate of the National Reconnaissance Office. As principal director she was instrumental in establishing the Transformational Communications Office and developing the Transformational Communications Architecture.

Other positions she held at The Aerospace Corporation include member of the technical staff, senior project engineer, and systems director, all within the National Systems Group, Planning and Communications Division.

Before joining Aerospace, Steele worked at Hughes Aircraft in the Radar Systems Division, for the MITRE Corporation in signal processing and navigation, and at Advent Systems in signal processing and communications.

Steele earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering/system science and a master's degree in engineering control systems from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Steele is a member of the National Defense Industrial Association and Women in Aerospace. She serves on the board of directors of the Federation of Galaxy Explorers.