Brian Barritt appointed Aalyria Chief Executive as space networks evolve

Dr. Brian Barritt became chief executive of Aalyria in July 2026, succeeding Chris Taylor in a planned leadership transition as the company shifts its focus toward product innovation and commercial growth.

Barritt co-founded the satellite infrastructure company in 2022 and held the chief technology officer role from its inception until his appointment. He brings more than 15 years of experience in advanced wireless networks, including seven years at Google as a senior staff software engineer where he helped create the Temporospatial SDN infrastructure for terrestrial, high-altitude and satellite networks.

He previously directed creation of important networking technologies at Google, including early work that grew into the Spacetime platform, and worked in leadership roles at Meta, Cisco and NASA‘s Space Communications and Navigation program. Aalyria builds on inventions originally developed at Google.

Space Symposium identified Dr. Brian Barritt as senior vice president and chief technology officer at Aalyria as of April 3, 2025, supporting software infrastructure for orchestrating networks across land, sea, air and space that Aalyria spun out from Google. The listing cites a related session, Game Changers: AI & Space Track, set for Wednesday, April 15, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

SpaceNews published a conversation with Barritt on October 22, 2026, examining how space-based networks are evolving, what scaling means for the company, and why software interoperability is becoming central to satellite infrastructure. The interview is part of Space Minds, a new audio and video podcast from SpaceNews focused on inspiring leaders, technologies and opportunities in space.

Mike Gruss presents the show, with new episodes appearing each Thursday on SpaceNews.com and on YouTube, Spotify and Apple platforms. The weekly series features interviews with scientists, founders and experts, covers news of interest to space enthusiasts, and engages listeners.

NASA selected Aalyria to support enterprise service orchestration for the SCaN Program, beginning with the Polylingual Experimental Terminal mission, under an agreement announced June 4, 2026. The demonstration flew in July 2025 aboard the York Space Systems BARD spacecraft and showed wideband terminal technology across NASA’s relay satellite fleet and multiple commercial networks. NASA designed the mission to prove spacecraft can roam seamlessly between government and commercial communications networks.

Aalyria plans to install a hosted Spacetime instance on NASA’s SPOC cloud platform, the SCaN Program Operations Cloud, to help the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory integrate and validate the software. APL created the PExT payload, and Aalyria will offer engineering and developer relations to APL teams working with Spacetime’s open-source application programming interfaces.

The company will work with multiple commercial networks on request to expand Spacetime’s Federation API for scheduling space relays and will design API extensions for upcoming space missions. This work builds on Aalyria’s existing relationship with NASA and its collaboration with the Defense Innovation Unit on the Hybrid Space Architecture program.

Aalyria collaborated with the Defense Innovation Unit on the Hybrid Space Architecture program and demonstrated coordination of multivendor, multi-orbit networks, with Spacetime serving as the orchestration layer that transmits data among commercial and government satellite operators. That capability has backed broader efforts to modernize space communications infrastructure.

Aalyria holds a NASA NextSTEP-2 contract from October 2024 to study and demonstrate a Network Orchestration and Management System for the SCaN Program. This earlier agreement forms part of Aalyria’s ongoing relationship with NASA alongside its newer SCaN orchestration agreement.

Aalyria supplies high-capacity laser communications terminals plus AI-powered intelligent network orchestration software enabling secure, resilient connectivity across terrestrial, airborne and space-based systems. Barritt said the founders built the company on the belief that all networks across land, sea, air and space should work together as one, and Aalyria has demonstrated this in the field using Spacetime and Tightbeam. His focus centers on driving innovation and commercial acceleration for the next chapter.

“NASA’s PExT mission represents a fundamental shift in how space communications networks will operate in the future,” said Brian Barritt, Founder of Aalyria. Barritt said Spacetime’s design supports orchestrating dynamic, real-time connectivity across networks and providers.

Arthur Patterson, founder of Accel and an Aalyria seed investor, said the board has strong confidence in Brian Barritt’s ability to lead the company into its next phase. Patterson also thanked Chris Taylor for everything he built at Aalyria.