Matt Bille is an Associate with the global consulting and technology firm Booz Allen Hamilton.  He spent 12 years as an Air Force officer, most notably in commanding a Titan II ICBM crew.  He is also a science writer and historian who has authored some 30 papers and article on space exploration, space history, microsatellites, and launch vehicles.  Matt is an “Apollo kid” who has been fascinated with space ever since he watched the Apollo 11 launch in person. He is the lead author of the NASA-published history The First Space Race: Launching the World’s First Satellites (2004), a groundbreaking account of the early Space Age.  As a science writer, he has written books on newly-discovered and endangered animals, which gave rise to his interest in the conservation of cetaceans (whales and dolphins).  Matt is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and the Society for Marine Mammology and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.  

Project WHALES/OceanLens

After learning cetologists desperately wanted more satellite coverage and more frequent contact with tagged whales, Matt and several colleagues at Booz Allen created Project WHALES (Whale/Habitat and Location/Environment Smallsats), which partnered with the company’s OceanLens software team to examine new ways of providing satellite tracking and displaying and analyzing the information. He and colleagues Laurie Baker, Kirk Borne, Steve Brune, Ian Byrnes, Rachel Dendiu, and Chris Round created one of the first space conference papers ever exploring the needs, issues, and options for improved satellite tracking.  “Microsatellites and Moby Dick” was presented at the 2018 Conference on Small Satellites. Matt can be reached at bille_matt@bah.com.