Space News:
WASHINGTON — Fred Kennedy, head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Tactical Technology Office, has been selected to serve as the director of the Defense Department’s new Space Development Agency.
In a memo to Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin designated Kennedy as his choice to become the first director of the Space Development Agency.
Shanahan in January decided to put the SDA under Griffin’s portfolio. The designation of Kennedy to lead the SDA comes two months after Griffin enlisted Kennedy to lead a study of how the SDA should be organized. Shanahan asked Griffin to submit a plan by March 1 to establish the SDA as a separate defense agency.
In a draft memo obtained by SpaceNews, Griffin proposes a budget of $149.8 million for the SDA in fiscal year 2020 to fund the “initial set of next-generation military space capabilities.” The agency would start out with about 50 employees — 30 civilians and 20 military.
