Dr. Lorna Finman has her doctoral degree in Astrophysics from Stanford University. Her thesis was successfully launched on the Gamma Ray Observatory, providing key data. She became a NASA astronaut candidate in 1989. She later worked with Raytheon Corporation (formerly Hughes Aircraft) Space & Strategic Division as both Program and Department Manager with multi-million-dollar budgets on Commercial Satellites and the Space Defense Initiative (aka Star Wars). She is the Founder and CEO of LCF Defense Enterprises, a high-tech engineering and manufacturing company whose innovative products are credited with saving thousands of troops’ lives. She launched an educational non-profit worldwide to engage students in space careers. She was Technical Director on NASA’s ELaNa Mission Project Davinci satellite, launched in 2019. Dr. Finman is also the author of Stars & Stripes: The Quest for American Space Dominance, a bold manifesto outlining America’s path to leadership in the cosmos. She has received multiple awards, published numerous papers, and holds a patent for her SDI innovative work.