Mr. Shayn Hawthorne works in the AWS Region Services Division as the Colorado Lead, Space Technical Lead, and General Manager of the AWS Ground Station service. In this role, Shayn works backward with commercial and Government space customers around the world. Shayn is focused on developing services and features that disrupt how space and intelligence operations are conducted and enabling space customers to share, fuse and leverage space data to improve their missions and products.
Prior to AWS, Shayn worked at the MITRE Corporation. In his last role, Shayn served as the Technical Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), responsible for directing the engineering activities of MITRE engineers in support of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Program, Command and Control Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) System, the Ballistic Missile Defense Overhead Persistent Infrared Architecture (BOA) and the Midcourse Tracking System (MTS) and many other programs.
Previously, Shayn led the MDA Space Knowledge Center as the Technical Director, which performed independent technical assessments and evaluated experiments related to MDA space programs. In previous MITRE work efforts, Shayn has led Advanced Development efforts for Air Force space situational awareness, missile warning, and missile defense sensors, as well as the Command and Control (C2) systems and correlator/tracker systems responsible for detecting and tracking air, space and missile threats to the United States and Canada.
Additional MITRE efforts include developing the Satellite as a Sensor concept and leading the start-up of the Rapid Attack Identification Detection Reporting System. Shayn was personally requested to support DoD Space System Vulnerability analyses that led to the National Security Space Protection Policy. He also played a critical role in starting the Space Radar program, focusing on theater tasking and Ground Moving Target Indicator data.
As a member of the Air Force Reserve, Shayn volunteered to mobilize in support of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) and fielded a satellite protection system while leading the Defensive Counter-space Testbed (DTB). Shayn supported the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and Electronic Security Command (ESC) as an Active Duty Air Force Officer.
Shayn received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering Mechanics from the United States Air Force Academy and a Master of Science Degree in Astronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology.