Christian Maender

Executive Vice President, Space Commercialization

Christian Maender serves as Axiom Space executive vice president for space commercialization, bringing his unique expertise to Axiom Space’s leadership team to leverage microgravity as a next generation platform for innovation and discovery. He leads market and business development efforts for Axiom Space where he directs conversations with new customers while guiding the company’s development of its product and service offerings.

Prior to joining Axiom Space, Maender had a 17-year career at NASA involved in all things related to conducting research and technology demonstrations on the International Space Station (ISS). This included roles designing and managing science experiments for research customers and managing science missions on the ISS for NASA and its international partners. Ultimately responsible for all the strategic research planning for the ISS, he helped lead the transition of the ISS Program from construction phase to full operations for science, research and technology demonstrations. He has extensive history working with a variety of customers implementing diverse strategies to expand the commercialization of low-Earth orbit and delivering in-space services and solutions to a variety of commercial, government, and academic customers.

Maender is the recipient of numerous awards, including the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and a co-author on a litany of publications derived from ISS research in which he participated. He holds both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Biomechanical Engineering from Tulane University.