NASA's Optical Communications Program for Future Planetary and Near-Earth Missions

Donald Cornwell

NASA

Don Cornwell started his career in laser communications and laser remote sensing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. He left NASA in 1998 for a telecommunications startup company where he was awarded eight patents for his work in Raman amplifier technology and was instrumental in the development and deployment of two nationwide fiber optic networks. From 2006 to 2011, Don supported NASA and commercial customers as the Vice President of Instrument Systems at Sigma Space Corporation in Lanham, MD. Don returned to NASA Goddard in 2011 to become the Mission Manager for LLCD and is now at NASA Headquarters as the Director of the Technology and Optical Communications (TOC) Division within SCaN. Don has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland College Park.