Anthony "Tony" Colucci, a long-time aerospace industry professional, has joined the board of directors of Albuquerque-based space communications firm Solstar Space Co., it announced Thursday.
A native New Mexican and Sandia High School graduate, the bulk of Colucci's career in the aerospace industry has been in California. Being able to support a New Mexico-based aerospace startup is one exciting aspect of joining Solstar's board, he told Albuquerque Business First.
Solstar has "some legs" under it, Colucci added. The company's working on a set of products to extend Wi-Fi connectivity and infrastructure into space; one of those technologies recently earned a tech transfer contract through the U.S. Department of the Air Force.
"There's nobody doing it, there's nobody putting that infrastructure," Colucci said. "And yet that infrastructure is essential to the space economy that's blossoming literally as we speak."
"So the opportunity to contribute to that and help bring that infrastructure into play to facilitate that space economy is a pretty exciting opportunity," he continued.
Colucci's career in aerospace started in Huntington Beach, California with Rockwell International's space systems division. The Boeing Co. acquired Rockwell's aerospace business in 1996, but by that time Colucci had moved up to El Segundo, California to work with the satellite manufacturing group of Hughes Aircraft Co.
That group was also acquired by Boeing near the turn of the century, a few years after Colucci had moved further up California's cost to Palo Alto to help lead business development for Space Systems Loral. Maxar Technologies, a large aerospace firm based in Westminster, Colorado, eventually came out of that California company.
Then, in 2020, Colucci and two colleagues created SpaceLink, an aerospace and defense company based in Washington, D.C. He had stepped away from Space Systems Loral a couple of years before.
"I've admitted that retiring isn't really feasible in today's world, so now I call myself semi-retired," he told Business First. "I've gotten involved with a number of companies and working with them as part of that [aerospace] ecosystem, and it's exciting. We have a lot of hot space startups here in New Mexico."
Solstar's work in bringing Wi-Fi to space began in 2018. The company was 2022's Inno Madness champion and contributed to NASA's Artemis mission last year.
It targets both commercial and government customers and has previously worked with large aerospace and defense companies like Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman. Brian Barnett, Solstar's CEO, told Business First in February that "we believe the commercial market will be the biggest force over time."
