15 Jan SeaTrain Technology Appoints Malia Van Horn Vice President of Engineering and Design
SeaTrain Technology Appoints Malia Van Horn Vice President of Engineering and Design
NASA CubeSat systems engineer joins the company to lead design of autonomous submersible cargo gliders
Malia Van Horn Vice President Engineering and Design malia@seatraintech.com
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — January 15, 2024 — SeaTrain Technology, LLC today announced the appointment of Malia Van Horn as Vice President of Engineering and Design. Van Horn will lead engineering and design strategy for SeaTrain’s autonomous submersible cargo glider systems serving commercial shipping, energy, and defense missions.
Van Horn is a mechanical engineer with an aerospace systems concentration and end-to-end experience designing, building, testing, and launching small spacecraft. She joins SeaTrain from the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she served as Mechanical Engineer and Lead Systems Engineer on NASA-funded CubeSat missions.
“Malia brings the rare combination of systems discipline and hands-on vehicle build experience,” said Randy M. Durst, Founder and Chairman of SeaTrain Technology. “Our gliders have to be designed like spacecraft that live in the ocean — modular, autonomous, and built for series production. She knows how to take a vehicle from concept through test and launch. That is exactly the engineering standard SeaTrain needs.”
Engineering Mandate
In her new role, Van Horn will direct the design, prototyping, and development of SeaTrain’s modular submersible platforms. Responsibilities include structural and hydrostatic design, stability and computational fluid dynamics analysis, autonomy and modularity across command, cargo, and tail modules, and coordination with manufacturing and classification-society requirements as the company moves from concept toward production.
SeaTrain is developing autonomous, unmanned, submersible cargo gliders powered by variable-buoyancy propulsion. The vessels are designed to move quietly underwater without conventional engines, fuel burn, or crew, and to be produced in series in American shipyards for commercial, energy, and defense applications.
Background
At the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory from 2022 to 2024, Van Horn led development of multiple NASA-funded CubeSat missions. Her work included spacecraft structural and mechanical design; thermal and vibrational testing; command and data handling architecture; attitude-control and communications subsystems; and coordination with NASA integration facilities for mission approval and launch-readiness testing. She designed and integrated a Gas Electron Multiplier detector for space deployment — a first of its kind — and oversaw in-orbit autonomous tasking and reconfigurable systems design.
She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Aerospace Systems from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Women in Aerospace, and a contributor to the National Space Grant Consortium.
“Shipping has the same problem spacecraft had a generation ago — custom hulls, long build cycles, and systems that cannot scale,” Van Horn said. “SeaTrain’s answer is modular vehicles that operate below the surface without fuel or crew. I am joining to put that architecture into hardware — structures, power, autonomy, and a production path that shipyards can actually build.”
About SeaTrain Technology
SeaTrain Technology, LLC, established in 2023 and headquartered in Boynton Beach, Florida, is developing a new category of maritime transport: modular, remotely operated submersible cargo gliders. The company’s core values are innovation, sustainability, efficiency, and safety. Learn more at seatraintech.com.
Media Contact
SeaTrain Technology, LLC
Randy M. Durst, Founder and Chairman
sales@seatraintech.com
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