Editor’s note: Ted Muelhaupt retired as a principal director from The Aerospace Corporation on December 1, 2021.
Ted Muelhaupt is a consultant with Aerospace’s Corporate Chief Engineer’s Office, focusing on enterprise integration of cross-cutting topics associated with the space operations environment.
Applying more than 45 years of experience in analysis and operation of space systems, Muelhaupt helps guide and coordinate the company’s efforts in space traffic management, space situational awareness, space safety, and space debris. He participates in discussions of space policy and behavioral norms, and how the two interact to drive freedom of operations in space for Aerospace’s diverse customers.
Muelhaupt has deep experience in space debris and the analysis of the space operations environment. For 15 years, he provided corporate oversight for space debris analysis as the principal director of Aerospace’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS), which has one of the largest concentrations of space debris and collision avoidance experts in the world. In addition, he helped establish the Space Safety Institute to expand access to corporate capabilities such as CORDS.
Simultaneously, Muelhaupt has also served as the principal director of the Southwest Regional Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the operations lead for Aerospace’s national Engineering and Technology Group (ETG), tasked with expanding the application of Aerospace’s subject matter expertise in ETG to our increasingly diversified customers in locations such as Albuquerque. Prior to that, he led the Systems Analysis and Simulation Subdivision in Chantilly, Virginia, providing expert orbital analysis and systems modeling to Aerospace’s customers.
In addition to space debris and space traffic management, Muelhaupt’s technical specialties have included orbit analysis, modeling and simulation, performance analysis, and software development. He has been a leading proponent of system visualization techniques and a leader or sponsor of major software tool developments. Throughout his career, he has also been a corporate leader in information technology issues, especially as they apply to users. Muelhaupt joined Aerospace in 1980.
Education
Muelhaupt received his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s degree in mechanics from the University of Minnesota.
Affiliations
Muelhaupt is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.