Team — ASTROANALYTICA

Gabriel Elefteriu FRAeS

Gabriel is a co-founder of AstroAnalytica. He also serves as Senior Fellow for Space Power at the Council on Geostrategy in London, where he co-founded the Strategic Defence Unit. Previously he was Director of Research and Strategy, and member of the Senior Management Team at Policy Exchange, one of the UK’s leading and most influential policy-oriented think tanks where he also founded and directed Britain’s first dedicated Space Policy Unit.
He has testified as an expert on space policy and strategy in both Houses of Parliament: in front of the House of Commons Defence Committee, and in front of the House of Lords UK Engagement With Space Committee.
In his UK policy and advocacy work, Gabriel operates at the intersection between 10 Downing Street, Whitehall departments, Parliament and the space industry, as well as external entities such as the European Space Agency. His background expertise is in space affairs, defence, foreign policy and strategy, with a particular emphasis on (defence) net assessment.
Gabriel is also an Associate of King’s College; and an elected Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the world’s preeminent learned society in the field, where he also serves on the Space Specialist Group’s Steering Committee.
Academically, he is currently a PhD candidate at King’s College London’s Defence Studies Department based at the UK Defence Academy, with a thesis on space power and national strategy.

John B Sheldon PhD

John is a co-founder of AstroAnalytica. He has over 25 years of government and analytical experience in national security space policy and strategy, and strategic analysis. John was Professor of Space and Cyber Power Strategic Studies at the U.S. Air Force’s School of Advanced Air and Space Studies (SAASS) at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, United States, and in that position also consulted for U.S. Air Force Space Command, U.S. Strategic Command, Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. National Security Council on national security space issues. John has also advised the Japanese, Polish, and Saudi governments on national security and civil space policy, and from 2016 to 2021 was an adviser to the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Defence on national security space matters and also helped set up their Strategic Analysis Directorate where he led numerous net assessments on a range of defence topics.
Additionally, John is the Emeritus founding editor of the peer-reviewed space policy journal Astropolitics and was founding publisher of the online portal SpaceWatch.Global. John has published numerous articles, chapters, and essays on space power in publications including The RUSI Journal, Space News, and Engelsberg Ideas.

Michelle Howard PhD

Michelle is an Associate Partner at AstroAnalytica. She is a lead government relations and strategic policy advisor in the defence and space sectors. Her early career spanned a number of operationally sensitive government programmes across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and East Africa. She moved into the private sector in 2009, establishing Babcock International Group’s regional business in Abu Dhabi. In 2012, Michelle joined Serco Middle East to lead new defence business. Since moving to the UK in 2016, she has served as an independent consultant in business intelligence, policy research, and government affairs.
Michelle is an accomplished linguist, speaking fluent Arabic and German as well as conversational French, Thai and Swahili. She holds a BA in Political Studies, from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and a MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. She is currently a PhD Candidate at King’s College, London in the Defence Studies Department.

Marco Aliberti

Marco is an Associate Partner at AstroAnalytica. He also works as Associate Manager and Lead on International Engagement at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna, the only pan-European think-tank providing decision-makers with an informed view on short to long-term issues relevant to the European space policy. Since 2020, he is also a Research Consultant at the Space Power and Policy Applied Research Consortium (SPPARC) established by Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. In his 10+ years of research experience, Mr. Aliberti has carried out and published a number of research projects in the areas of space safety and security, governance and international space politics, and Asia’s space programmes, particularly those of China, Japan and India. He is the author of six books and dozens of policy papers, conference proceedings and public reports on space policy matters. Prior to joining ESPI in 2012, he had experience in the private sector. As per his academic background, he graduated with honours in Oriental Languages and Cultures at the University of Rome in 2008. He also holds two masters in international studies and is currently pursuing a PhD in international space governance.

Leyton Wells

Leyton is a Senior Analyst at AstroAnalytica. He is also a Policy Adviser on Emerging Technologies at the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences. He graduated from University College London in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Science and Technology Studies, specialising in science and technology policy and producing his final dissertation on the governance of innovation in the space sector. He then joined the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna as a Researcher in 2018 before returning to London as an International and Policy Coordinator at the Institute of Physics. After that, Leyton was appointed Research Fellow for Space Policy and Technology at the leading UK think tank, Policy Exchange - the first such role in Westminster. At the Royal Society, Leyton currently works on a space project looking at policy considerations for emerging space technologies out to 2075.
More broadly, Leyton has an interest in structures and mechanisms for governing space, the relationship between public and private actors, and the governance of emerging technologies in the sector.

OUR TEAM