Program Executive Officer, Space Systems Command Assured Access to Space

Brigadier General Kristin L. Panzenhagen is quad hatted as Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Assured Access to Space; Commander, Space Launch Delta (SLD) 45; Director of the Eastern Range; and Director of Launch and Range Operations, Space Systems Command (SSC/S3). She also serves as the Space Force University Partnership Program Co-Champion for Purdue University.

As PEO, General Panzenhagen is responsible for organizing, training and equipping 22,000 government and contractor personnel at SLD 45 at Patrick Space Force Base (SFB) and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (SFS), SLD 30 at Vandenberg SFB, and the Launch Enterprise Directorate at Los Angeles and Kirtland Air Force Bases. Additionally, she leads the acquisition, integration, development, production, operation, and sustainment of the $13.5B National Security Space Launch Program, Rocket System Launch Program, and Launch and Test Range System Program. As SLD 45 Commander, she is responsible for base infrastructure for more than 15,000 military, civilians, contractors, and dependents at Patrick SFB, Cape Canaveral SFS, and Ascension Island. She also leads the safe and secure payload processing and launching of U.S. government and commercial satellites from Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida. As the U.S. Space Force Director of the Eastern Range--a 15-millionsquare-mile area with approximately 90 launches in 2023 on Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Atlas V, Delta IV Heavy, U.S. Navy’s Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile, and Astra Rocket 3--she is the final approval authority for all launches, landings, and DoD testing to include Kennedy Space Center satellites and human spaceflight. Finally, as Director of Launch and Range Operations, she provides policy guidance and resources for the Space Force’s $30B Eastern and Western Range space launch, ballistic missile test and hypersonic support range portfolios.

General Panzenhagen entered the Air Force as a Distinguished Graduate of the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Purdue University in 2000. She began her career as an aircraft maintenance officer, then transitioned to the developmental engineering career field, where she performed aircraft propulsion and structures research and executed space launch and onorbit satellite operations. She has managed multi-domain command and control, missile warning and defense, and satellite ground enterprise programs. She commanded at the squadron level, leading the National Air and Space Intelligence Center’s Foreign Materiel Exploitation Squadron and has worked national-level space policy at the National Reconnaissance Office.

General Panzenhagen deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia as an aircraft maintenance officer for Operation SOUTHERN WATCH; to Al Anbar, Iraq as part of a contingency contracting team for Operation IRAQI FREEDOM; and to Camps Slayer and Liberty, Iraq as the National Reconnaissance Office Lead in Iraq for Operation NEW DAWN.