WASHINGTON — The Aerospace Corp. announced Dec. 23 that former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, has been elected to the company’s board of trustees. Also joining the Aerospace board are former DoD official Kathleen Hicks and former NASA official Dava Newman.

The new board members were elected Dec. 11 for three-year terms. Aerospace’s board of trustees has between 12 to 22 members.

Aerospace, headquartered in El Segundo, California, is a nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center and provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military civil, and commercial customers.

Selva retired in August after serving as the 10th vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s second highest-ranking military officer. As vice chairman, Selva ran the Joint Requirements Oversight Council that vets all DoD acquisitions to ensure programs meet the demands of military commanders.

Hicks is senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and was previously principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy; and deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans and forces.

Newman is the Apollo program professor in the department of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She was previously NASA deputy administrator from May 2015 to Jan. 2017.

Aerospace announced several departures from the board:Alan Wade, Daniel Hastings, John Tracy, Keith Hall, Charles Elachi and retired general William Shelton, who was replaced as vice chairman of the board of trustees by Stephanie O’Sullivan, the former principal deputy director of National Intelligence in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Sandra Erwin writes about military space programs, policy, technology and the industry that supports this sector. She has covered the military, the Pentagon, Congress and the defense industry for nearly two decades as editor of NDIA’s National Defense...