The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the "Star Wars program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. The concept was announced on March 23, 1983, by President Ronald Reagan, a vocal critic of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a "suicide pact". Reagan called upon American scientists and engineers to develop a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete. Elements of the program reemerged in 2019 with the Space Development Agency (SDA).
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now is sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research device, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, United States. NIF's mission is to achieve fusion ignition with high energy gain. It achieved the first instance of scientific breakeven controlled fusion in an experiment on December 5, 2022, with an energy gain factor of 1.5. It supports nuclear weapon maintenance and design by studying the behavior of matter under the conditions found within nuclear explosions.
Ivan Alexander Getting was an American physicist and electrical engineer, credited with the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS). He was the co-leader of the research group which developed the SCR-584, an automatic microwave tracking fire-control system, which enabled M9 Gun Director directed anti-aircraft guns to destroy a significant percentage of the German V-1 flying bombs launched against London late in the Second World War.
Ashton Baldwin Carter was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States Secretary of Defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
Nova was a high-power laser built at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, United States, in 1984 which conducted advanced inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments until its dismantling in 1999. Nova was the first ICF experiment built with the intention of reaching "ignition", a chain reaction of nuclear fusion that releases a large amount of energy. Although Nova failed in this goal, the data it generated clearly defined the problem as being mostly a result of Rayleigh–Taylor instability, leading to the design of the National Ignition Facility, Nova's successor. Nova also generated considerable amounts of data on high-density matter physics, regardless of the lack of ignition, which is useful both in fusion power and nuclear weapons research.
Curtis Bruce Tarter is an American theoretical physicist. He was the director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1994-2002. As director emeritus he recently published the first comprehensive history of the laboratory.
Project Excalibur was a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Cold War–era research program to develop an X-ray laser system as a ballistic missile defense (BMD) for the United States. The concept involved packing large numbers of expendable X-ray lasers around a nuclear device, which would orbit in space. During an attack, the device would be detonated, with the X-rays released focused by each laser to destroy multiple incoming target missiles. Because the system would be deployed above the Earth's atmosphere, the X-rays could reach missiles thousands of kilometers away, providing protection over a wide area.
George H. Miller Ph.D. served as director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) from 2007 until 2011. Dr. Miller, an employee of the Laboratory for 34 years, replaced Michael Anastasio, who left LLNL to head Los Alamos National Laboratory.
William A. Jeffrey is the CEO of SRI International, a position he has held since September 2014. He is an astronomer and astrophysicist by education.
Space Systems Command (SSC) is the United States Space Force's space development, acquisition, launch, and logistics field command. It is headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California and manages the United States' space launch ranges.
John Alexander Gordon was an American air force general who served as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He also served as the President's Homeland Security advisor from 2003 to 2004.
Retired Maj. Gen. Roosevelt Mercer Jr., SES, is the director of the Interagency Planning Office (IPO) for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) at the Federal Aviation Administration where he provides high-level leadership for interagency and international collaboration related to NextGen. He executes the collaborative processes needed to ensure efficient coordination among all federal partners whose decisions impact NextGen. The federal partner agencies include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Commerce (DOC), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), National Science Foundation (NSF), and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), as well as the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as an ex officio participant. Mr. Mercer is charged with providing executive direction to a dynamic multi-agency and international partnering organization focused on future NextGen technology, policy, and collaborative activities.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a United States federal agency responsible for safeguarding national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile; works to reduce the global danger from weapons of mass destruction; provides the United States Navy with safe and effective nuclear propulsion; and responds to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the United States and abroad.
Edward Moses is an American physicist and is the former president of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization. He is a past principal associate director for the National Ignition Facility & Photon Science Directorate, where he led the California-based NIF, the largest experimental science facility in the US and the world's most energetic laser, that hopes to demonstrate the first feasible example of usable nuclear fusion.
Charles Maria Herzfeld was an Austrian-born American scientist and scientific manager, particularly for the US Government. He is best known for his time as Director of DARPA, during which, among other things, he personally made the decision to authorize the creation of the ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet.
The Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) was a leading U.S. Army research establishment situated at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland that specialized in ballistics as well as vulnerability and lethality analysis. BRL served as a major Army center for research and development in technologies related to weapon phenomena, armor, electronic devices, and high-speed computing. In 1992, BRL was disestablished and its mission, personnel, and facilities were incorporated into the newly created Army Research Laboratory (ARL).
LIFE, short for Laser Inertial Fusion Energy, was a fusion energy effort run at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory between 2008 and 2013. LIFE aimed to develop the technologies necessary to convert the laser-driven inertial confinement fusion concept being developed in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) into a practical commercial power plant, a concept known generally as inertial fusion energy (IFE). LIFE used the same basic concepts as NIF, but aimed to lower costs using mass-produced fuel elements, simplified maintenance, and diode lasers with higher electrical efficiency.
Huban A. Gowadia is principal associate director of Global Security at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) since February 2020. Gowadia joined the Lab in May 2018 as the deputy principal associate director for Programs for the National Ignition Facility and Photon Science (NIF&PS) principal directorate. She worked with the NIF&PS Department of Defense Technologies program to engage industry and federal sponsors to form partnerships to address some of the nation’s most pressing security issues. She also supported the development of cross-disciplinary initiatives within LLNL that can utilize NIF&PS technologies to enhance mission space in other directorates.
Maynard Ansley Holliday is the Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Modernization at The Pentagon. He previously worked under Barack Obama, during which time he launched the Defense Innovation Unit. Holliday was Project Manager for Pioneer, a robot which helped to map the inside for the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
