WASHINGTON — Muon Space, a Silicon Valley-based satellite manufacturer founded in 2021, announced a slate of new executive hires headlined by former Space Development Agency official Paula Trimble.
The startup is working to strengthen its position in the U.S. national security space sector, bringing in seasoned government and industry leaders as it scales production and expands defense-related programs.
The company announced July 8 that Trimble was named vice president of government affairs and strategy, bringing deep Pentagon space connections as Muon Space looks to expand beyond its current contracts with the National Reconnaissance Office, Space Force and SDA.
Trimble most recently served as policy chief and director of legislative affairs at SDA, the Space Force agency tasked with building the military’s next-generation satellite constellation for missile tracking and tactical communications known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, or PWSA.
These new hires follow a $146 million Series B funding round and acquisition of propulsion startup Starlight Engines. Muon is targeting production of 500 satellites annually in the 100-500+ kilogram class.
“We’re assembling top talent across every domain to build a truly end-to-end space systems company,” said Greg Smirin, Muon’s president.
The executive appointments also include former Google and Raytheon executive Carl Nardell as VP of mission engineering, ex-Loft Orbital executive Gautier Brunet as VP of product, former Powin Energy executive Ryan Gray as CFO, and former Formlabs official Shirley Paley as chief legal officer.
Muon designs, builds and operates LEO satellites, including its Halo platform for Earth observation, environmental monitoring and national security missions. The company is working with the NRO under the agency’s Strategic Commercial Enhancements program, which taps commercial vendors to develop national security applications for multispectral electro-optical and infrared data.
The company also holds a Space Force Small Business Innovation Research Phase 2 contract to evaluate whether its instruments can provide high-resolution imagery of cloud cover and weather conditions for military and intelligence operations.
SDA selected Muon as one of 19 companies for its Hybrid Acquisition for Proliferated Low Earth Orbit program, known as HALO — not to be confused with Muon’s satellite platform of the same name. The SDA program creates a testing ground for advanced technologies that may later be integrated into PWSA, allowing the agency to experiment with new capabilities before committing to large-scale procurement.
Beyond national security applications, Muon is partnering with the nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance to deploy a constellation of “FireSat” satellites for wildfire monitoring, demonstrating the dual-use potential of its technology.