Frank Slazer

Frank Slazer is the President and CEO of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration (Coalition). He brings nearly forty years of aerospace industry and Washington, D.C. space policy experience to his role at the Coalition.

His most recent role prior to starting at the Coalition was as Vice President, Strategy and Business Development for civil, national security and commercial space programs at Aerojet Rocketdyne. Frank also previously served (2011-2019) as Vice President, Space Systems, for the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), an industry trade organization representing America’s aerospace industry. Before joining AIA, he worked at Northrop Grumman Corporation as the capture lead in its pursuit of NASA’s Altair Lunar Lander spacecraft development under the Constellation program.

Slazer began his career as a propulsion engineer on the McDonnell Douglas Delta Launch Vehicle and soon moved to the development of the Payload Assist Module DII, a solid motor upper stage used to transfer satellites from the Space Shuttle to higher orbits. Following an internal training program, he transitioned to a business development professional role and soon spent a year on Capitol Hill in the Conference Board’s Congressional Fellows program before working in the McDonnell Douglas Washington Office. He later served in several leadership roles supporting the International Space Station and Delta Launch Vehicles. He continued in these roles at Boeing, following the company’s merger with MDC.

In 2001, he was chosen to lead Boeing’s new Space Shuttle Business Development organization where he led an industry team that worked to identify ways to improve safety and reduce costs. He transitioned back over to leading civil space business development for Delta launch vehicles in 2003 and continued in this role after the formation of the United Launch Alliance joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin until February 2008.

In addition to his responsibilities with industry, from 2008 to 2012 Frank served as President of the American Astronautical Society, which named him as a Fellow in 2013. Slazer also served as a member of the Department of Transportation’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) and is on the Space Transportation Committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where he is a senior member. His education includes both a BS in Aerospace Engineering and a BA in Political Science from Syracuse University, and an MBA from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California at Irvine.

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