How the Defense Innovation Unit Is Helping America Reach for the Stars

Originally published by Tim Ventura

Brigadier General Steven Butow is the Space Portfolio Director for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research & Engineering, located in Silicon Valley.

“In terms of space we’ve had a couple worth mentioning: we issued a DOD contract to Rocket Lab before they’d launched anything — and since then they’ve taken off and done very well. Capella Space is a personal favorite because I was a military advisor to some of the Stanford students who founded it back then they were going through a Hacking For Defense class. Now they’ve got a hundred employees and their future is looking good.”

Hacking for Defense is a program sponsored by the National Security Innovation Network and powered by BMNT and the Common Mission Project.