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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Katherine M. Pfeiffer

Dr. David J. Whalen was born June 27, 1944 in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1966, he graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in Astronomy and was commissioned an officer in the United States Navy.
He served as an A6A Intruder bombardier / navigator on the USS Coral Sea during the Vietnam War.
In 1972, he received an M.S. in Astronomy from the University of Massachusetts. In 1974, he accepted a position as Supervisor, Celestial Mechanics for Western Union’s Westar satellite program – the first domestic U.S. communications satellite.
Satellite communications has been Dr. Whalen’s primary interest since that time, with occasional excursions into astronomy, remote sensing, and weather satellites.
In 1987 he received an M.B.A. from the college of William and Mary, and in 1997 earned a Ph.D. in Science, Technology, and Public Policy from George Washington University.
Dr. Whalen has written extensively on the history, politics, economics, and technology of satellite communications. He has worked in India as Mission Operations Manager of the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) program, in Japan on the Broadcast Satellite (BSE), ECS, and Superbird programs, and in Hong Kong as General Manager Engineering for AsiaSat.