Michelle Parker recently took on a new role as vice president of Space Mission Systems at Boeing. After restructuring Boeing Defense, Space & Security last year, Boeing brought all satellite programs together under Space Mission Systems including commercial and government satellites, Spectrolab and Millennium Space Systems in one organization. 

Michelle has a long career in the satellite industry, starting out more than 25 years ago with Hughes’ satellite division before it was acquired by Boeing, where she worked on the thermal design of the original 702 platform. Now she is tasked with integrating these teams and recognizing synergies across the business to present the best offerings to customers. 

She spoke with On Orbit host Rachel Jewett on the first day of the SATELLITE show in Washington D.C., as Boeing prepared to ship the first ViaSat-3 satellite to Cape Canaveral for launch operations. In this wide-ranging discussion, Michelle talks about the demand environment for satellite manufacturing across government and commercial segments in the multi-orbit era. She discusses responding to competition in the manufacturing market, how she has seen Boeing and the industry evolve, and the market for talent.