Faces of Astrion: Eric Brown

Building Advantage in the Most Contested Domain

The Faces of Astrion series celebrates the talented, innovative and dedicated individuals who drive our mission forward. Through these spotlights, we’re highlighting the experience, insights and passion of team members who make real impact every day. Today, we’re featuring Eric Brown, President of Mission Solutions. From shaping national security strategy and advancing space innovation to helping define what’s next across defense and exploration, Eric brings a unique perspective on mission, leadership, and the future of space.

Q: Tell us about your role at Astrion.

Eric: One of the reasons I joined Astrion is that we’re at a transformational moment. We have world-class expertise across the business, and my role is helping connect those capabilities in ways that create greater impact for our customers.

As President of Mission Solutions, I oversee the collection of Astrion’s mission delivery portfolios including integrated air and missile defense; space warfighting; layered defense and integrated fires; weapon system and digital lifecycle management; autonomous warfare; exploration and lunar presence; cyber warfare; and critical infrastructure protection. I also oversee our Axient Systems subsidiary in the Netherlands. At the highest level, my responsibility is simple: deliver mission outcomes for our customers while helping position Astrion for future growth.

What excites me most is that we’re not building from scratch. The expertise already exists across the company. In many cases, we’re uncovering capabilities that were developed independently and bringing them together to solve bigger challenges. That’s where innovation happens.

I’ve spent much of my career supporting many of these same mission communities, so this hasn’t felt like drinking from a fire hose. It’s felt like coming home, with an opportunity to help shape what comes next.

Q: What has been your favorite project at Astrion so far?

Eric: Early in my time at Astrion, I visited Systems Engineering Group (SEG), our software development organization, in Columbia, Maryland. SEG demonstrated some of the most advanced physics-based modeling and simulation capabilities I’ve seen, with applications spanning from the seabed to cislunar space.

What immediately stood out was how those capabilities could be applied well beyond their original use cases. I started seeing connections to challenges in space operations, electronic warfare, undersea warfare, cyber operations, and a variety of other missions.

Within weeks, we had developed a framework that combined capabilities from multiple parts of the company, created mockups across several mission areas, and began sharing the concept with senior military leaders, international partners, and our Board of Directors.

The exciting part wasn’t inventing something entirely new. The capability already existed inside Astrion. We simply connected the dots in a new way. That’s a powerful example of what this company can do.

Q: What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?

Eric: Professionally, my career has been anything but linear.

I started on Capitol Hill, moved into technical services supporting homeland security missions, worked alongside intelligence and special operations communities, spent time developing advanced solutions in the commercial transportation industry, helped grow space businesses in the defense sector, worked in venture capital, and ultimately found my way to Astrion.

If there’s one lesson from that journey, it’s that careers aren’t ladders. The most valuable experiences often come from unexpected turns.

Personally, I play guitar, have been a SCUBA diver since I was a teenager, trained for years in combat sports, enjoy the outdoors, and just crossed a 1,000-day streak on Duolingo where I’ve been fine-tuning my Italian, Russian, and also my chess game.

Q: What is your view on the future of space?

Eric: Space is no longer a niche sector. It has become one of the most strategically important domains for economic growth, scientific advancement, and national security.

On the commercial side, I believe we’re still in the early innings. Much of the conversation today focuses on launches and spacecraft, but the larger opportunity lies in the infrastructure that enables a sustained space economy. The companies that enable the logistics, integration, manufacturing, and operational frameworks around future space activity may ultimately create the most enduring value.

For organizations like Astrion, that means moving beyond simply responding to requirements. The future belongs to companies that can anticipate mission needs, create new possibilities, and bring together expertise across disciplines to solve complex problems.

National security is evolving just as rapidly. Space has become essential to military operations, and our competitors understand that. The next generation of defense capability will depend on securing freedom of action in orbit while protecting the systems that enable joint operations around the globe.

That’s why I believe the future of space is increasingly about operational advantage. It’s about resilient architectures, mission integration, advanced modeling and simulation, data-driven decision making, and the ability to move at the speed of emerging threats.

What gives me confidence is that Astrion already has many of the experts, technologies, and mission relationships needed to help shape that future. Our opportunity is to bring those capabilities together faster than anyone else.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?

Eric: Stop thinking about your career as a linear process.

Some of the most important growth in my life came from experiences that didn’t fit the plan. Focus on learning, put in the work, embrace challenges, and trust that difficult periods are often preparing you for opportunities you can’t yet see.

The late nights and hard-earned lessons rarely feel valuable in the moment, but they’re often what make the next chapter possible.

Q: What does “results with impact” mean to you?

Eric: For me, it starts with understanding the mission behind the work.

Throughout my career, I’ve learned that if you focus relentlessly on mission success, the business results often follow. The best outcomes usually come when you’re solving the right problem for the customer.

One story I often share comes from my grandfather. He grew up in a small town in upstate New York and studied animal husbandry at Cornell before leaving school during the Great Depression to help his family. He worked on a farm, supported the war effort, and later taught himself electrical and mechanical skills out of necessity.

Eventually, he found his way to a small company supporting what would become NASA. Despite having no engineering degree and battling debilitating illness, he ended up leading the team that designed the exploding bridge wire firing system responsible for stage separation on the Saturn V rocket—the rocket that carried astronauts to the moon.

When I was young, he told me something that stayed with me for the rest of my life:

“When anyone at NASA was asked what their job was, there was only one answer. It didn’t matter if you swept floors or were the chief engineer. Your job was to put a man on the moon. And that’s why we came back to work every day.”

My grandfather’s generation helped put a man on the moon. Our generation has the opportunity to help put humanity there permanently.

That’s what results with impact means to me: understanding that whatever your role, you’re contributing to something larger than yourself. Whether advancing space exploration, strengthening national security, or developing the next generation of mission capabilities, every contribution matters. And that’s why we come back to work every day.

Q: What do you consider the most important invention of the last century?

Eric: I’d have to say the computer.

Nearly every transformational capability we rely on today traces back to computing. It changed how we communicate, how we conduct business, how we explore space, how we defend nations, and increasingly, how we make decisions.

The advent of the computer wasn’t just about the value created by the invention at the time; it accelerated humanity’s ability to envision and create future technologies. From modern satellites to artificial intelligence, many of the innovations shaping our future are built on that foundation.

For me, it’s the invention that most fundamentally changed the trajectory of modern civilization.