Air Commodore Terry Van Haren (Retd) is the President APAC and MD Australia of LeoLabs, which has been described as a “Sci-Fi, super modern air traffic control system they’ve built from technology that tracks everything in space.” After 35 years with the Royal Australian Air Force as a Commander, Director, fighter pilot, and weapons officer, (he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his leadership in Operation Iraqi Freedom) he served as the Air and Space Attaché to the United States in Washington, DC, where he worked widely with the US Space Force. He’s also a Director of the Space Industries Association of Australia.
In New Delhi for DefSAT 2024, which brought various stakeholders in space defence under one roof, he took time out to talk to Ramananda Sengupta. Noting that this was his “sixth trip to India in the last 18 months,” he said it was in response to “India stepping forth as a spacefaring nation and growing a commercial industry.”
LeoLabs, he said, “hopes to assist in that growth, assist Indian space companies to navigate through the issues of operating in Low Earth Orbit.” He also spoke about how space has now become an increasingly commercialised domain, and why he thinks the Quad, which comprises India, Japan, the US, and Australia, is also a factor in the Space Race.
To learn more about what Terry and LeoLabs hope to achieve with India, listen to the full interview.
