Stephen Kitay
Senior Director, Azure Space, Microsoft
Stephen Kitay and the Azure Space team are focused on empowering every person and organization on — and off — the planet to achieve more. Kitay co-leads (alongside Chirag Parikh, the former White House director of space policy) Microsoft’s efforts to support the mission needs of the space sector through cloud-enabled technologies.
Kitay and the team are already driving a big impact for the Azure Space initiative. Prior to Microsoft, Kitay worked in government as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, tasked with the military’s space strategy and guidance. His career has taken him to both sides of the Potomac River and in a unique role in the creation of the Space Force — from congressional staff to Pentagon leadership serving in key positions with the groups that took the Space Force from an idea to reality.
Why Watch
Azure Space is focused on rapidly bringing the next frontier in cloud-powered innovation to reality. The space community is growing quickly, and new technologies lower the barriers of access for all industries and organizations.
“We are at an inflection point, and the power of space combined with the power of the cloud will unlock innovation in both the public and private sectors (that was) never possible before,” Kitay said.
Microsoft is developing new resilient, secure capabilities to extend connectivity across the world, simulate virtual worlds, discover new insights with artificial intelligence, and drive modernization both on the ground and in orbit, company leaders said. The company’s strategy is to bring its technology alongside a robust and growing network of new and established space partners. Azure Space and its partners are making space connectivity and compute increasingly attainable across industries including within agriculture, energy, telecommunications and government, the company said.
“When we think about the future, we are focused on enabling the partnerships and space ecosystem,” Kitay said. “Our vision is to be the cloud platform of choice to empower our customers across multiple industries to innovate in space to improve life here on Earth.”